


Golden Child

by BrynLara



Category: unOrdinary (Webcomic)
Genre: Abilties, Bad Parenting, Child Abuse, Death, Ember - Freeform, Eventual Smut, F/M, Form manipulation, Ghosts, God-tiers, Gymnastics, High-tiers, John has sisters, Kidnapping, Land of the Dead, Levels, Murder, Runaway, Shapeshifting, Superheroes, Time Manipulation, Torture, Vigilante, aura manipulation, energy beams, level boost, natural level boost, superhero, vigilantes, world of ghosts
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2020-02-20
Updated: 2021-02-27
Packaged: 2021-02-27 18:34:01
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Underage
Chapters: 68
Words: 146,349
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/22740292
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/BrynLara/pseuds/BrynLara
Summary: On Blyke's first time being a vigilante by himself, he comes across a girl who admits to going out too much and has met several members of Ember's drug ring. The second time he goes out as a vigilante, he meets her again and she offers him something he cannot resist...Meanwhile, John meets someone who claims to be from New Bostin High School, but she does not fear him. Instead, she wants to move to Wellston and may threaten the identity he has come up for several years........“It’s not working,” she replied, crossing her arms over her chest as she came to a stop in front of him. “I boosted your ability.”“What?”“It’s what my ability does,” she said, “I mean, I also blocked the majority of them from using their abilities, but you would be on the losing end if I didn’t.”He glared at her. His plan had failed and she was the reason.
Relationships: Arlo/Elaine (unOrdinary), Blyke/Remi (unOrdinary), Isen (unOrdinary)/Original Character, John Doe/Seraphina (unOrdinary), Rei (unOrdinary)/Original Character
Comments: 162
Kudos: 112





	1. The Girl

From the wall, the pink-haired man ran across the road, the ground shaking beneath his feet. It cracked and theisured as he ground to a halt, a figure in front of him trying to step back but falling backwards instead as the concrete broke and fractured beneath her.

Charging a beam, Blyke moved his hand to aim at the man. The red light flashed through the air as it streaked towards its target. The man fell backward as blood spurted out from his shoulders, splashing out like a bullet hit. 

His pink eyes glanced up to see his masked face. Stumbling back, his body gae way and collapsed to the ground.

Leaping from the roof, Blyke cringed at the shock reverberated through his bent legs. The girl, her dark brown hair tumbling down her shoulders, pushed her back off the ground and scurried a few feet away from him, her legs flailing with her black leather boots. 

“No!” she cried out, her voice belonging to someone who had not been through puberty though that was clearly false. “Stay away!”

“Don’t worry,” he replied, attempting to put gentleness into his voice as he offered out his hand and succeeded. “I’m a vigilante – one of the superheroes.”

“So,” she responded, drawing out the word with her accent as her voice quickly became more questioning. But her hand moved to hesitate a stage before she would accept his hand. “You could be lying. Do I look like I have a lie detection ability? ‘Cause I don’t.”

“Okay,” he said as he took a step forward to straighten up with his hand still out in offering. “This is my first time acting as a vigilante on my own.”

Accepting his hand, the girl stood up and brushed down her dark jeans before saying, “I could tell.”

“Oh.” He blinked a second before a realisation crossed his mind. “Wait, you are out late at night and get attacked regularly enough to meet other vigilantes.”

“Oh,” she replied, flicking some of her thick brown hair over her shoulder as she nervously glanced towards the street side and the domestic buildings. “I guess I do. I should probably stop, but I never consider it dangerous as I’m not from this area. I’m not a low-tier, unlike the locals.”

“You should stop then,” he replied as he looked over the enviroment. The concrete was severely cracked from previous attacks and even this one; there were no lights shining through the closed curtains.

An exhausted sigh passed the girl’s lips before she looked back up high into his eyes and replied, “I know, I know, but I’ll forget again anyway.”

Pausing, Blyke moved through his thoughts. “Maybe you should write it on your hand.”

“Write it on my hand.” A vicious laugh was muffled by her hand being brought to cover her mouth. “It will only wash off. And maybe you should follow your own advice.”

Suddenly, he found his golden eyes wide as her long brown hair hit his face when she turned and broke out into a sprint.

It took him a few moments to think of an appropriate response, but by then she had turned a corner and vanished out his eyeline. ‘I’m prepared to take the risk’, but then… she had to take the risk to stay out so long.

Sighing, he turned to the body next to him. The man had hit his head hard o the concrete pavement (no one seemed to own a car around here) and now he was lying in a puddle of his own blood.

Glancing up, a woman peeked through her closed blinds. Although the idea was the last thought on his mind, he found himself walking towards the door and his fist connecting with the old wood. “Sorry for disturbing you, ma’am, but can you get some medical help for this man. I know he has been creating havoc for this community but I doubt he deserves to die for his crimes.”

He had put on his most authoritarian voice that he could muster and prepared to walk away after a moment of silence when the door now behind him clicked open. 

“I’ll treat him, but only if you come inside too and explain yourself,” the voice of a young woman spoke. He turned back around to see the forest green haried woman peeking her head around a door that she hadn’t fully opened. “Please?”

He nodded and smiled in response before he walked over to the man and pulled him up into his arms. Carrying him over to the house, the woman moved the door to let room for them only to quickly shut it once they where safely inside the house. Then she led them to an empty living room where she gestured to a long black leather sofa that had a stack of cushions on one side.

The cushions fell over as he laid him down on the sofa, but he used one to prop Lance’s head up. The lady threw a towel at him and he snatched it out of the air before it hit his face. He maneuvered beneath the man’s head.

“Please can we keep the noise down,” the lady asked, her bright red eyes looking deep into his own. “I finally got the three year old to sleep.”

He nodded and watched as the lady pulled out a draw and grabbed a roll of bandages. Then she walked back over, lifting Lance’s head to wrap the bandages around. “He’s my cousin.”

Blyke’s eyes went wide as he stared in silence as the woman continued.

“We’ve always been on the border of a low-tier and a mid-tier, so he was the pride of the family when he was so close to being an elite-tier in his third-year of High School. But his level never got higher than that.”

Handing the roll of bandages to him, Blyke sympathetically smiled beneath his mask. It was a different form of pressure, but there was almost no reward for the pressure a high-tier felt. And he wasn’t even a high-tier. Yet…

“Going into adulthood,” she continued, tying the bandage. “He stayed in this neighbourhood worked our jobs, but he expected better treatment. Always training his ability only to keep it at the same level. No one really knew it about him; it’s not really something you can know without being told, and all he of those who he told didn’t believe him. So he snapped.”

She sweetly smiled, which didn’t reach her eyes. A deep sadness radiated from the depths of her blue eyes partially covered by her bangs: a regret so dark that he doubted he would ever understand. 

“I don’t know why it happened. I wasn’t there and my useless ability shone no insight,” she continued to explain, her voice long and shallow. “As his closest relative left, I felt obligated to help him, but no one could get through to him.” A hefty sigh passed through her lips as she glanced across the room. “Anyway, my name is Lyra and who are you?”

Her cold eyes suddenly turned onto his, forcing him to stumble out. “I-I…” before he collected his thoughts and responded. “You can call me Light, but please don’t make a big deal about this. I want to stay alive.”

“Oh.” Lyra hesitated a moment as she glanced away, seemingly thinking through something. “You’re a vigilante.”

“Yes,” he replied, pausing as his mind thought back to all the comments thrown about at school about superheroes, vigilantes. Nasty comments and passing thoughts that he always kept thinking would bring Remi to tears. They never really had, but he also never thought himself as one before this. “I thought it was obvious.”

“It is.” She gathered her thoughts as she moved her medical tools away from Lance, having bandaged his two wounds. “I just wasn’t thinking clearly tonight. However, it is about time one turned up here.”

“Has it been going on for awhile?” he asked after a moment.

“Yes, though it was out first – I don’t know what to him,” she replied. “Attacker? Disturber? He is not a villain. I know that for sure.”

“Who’s not a villain?” a voice suddenly asked.

Looking down, Lyra lost control of her voice and shouted, “Shut up! Lance!”. Then her hand was brought up only to rage down and hit his face with a smack, leaving a red handprint on the pink haired man’s face.

The World was empty before John. There was no one left for him. For a second day, his cracked phone screen rested in his palm.

He did not want to tell his dad that his phone was broken for a second time that year. Especially the explanation for it this time. His father would push that he was right and complain about having to ask his mother to pay for it again. Did his sisters ever go through this with their mum?

“Ooo, that looks bad,” a voice said. 

He leaped to the side and faced the owner of the feminine voice in his room. A brunette girl with straight bangs that fell to her eyebrows, neatly cut in a straight line, whilst the rest of her hair fell straight in a convex shape to her shoulders. As if artificial, not a single hiar was out of place. Her violet eyes bore into his gold ones from her downturned eyes, pointed eyelashes perfectly in place around her eyes. Her small nose dotted the centre of her face, bordered by her sharp, strong jaw that contrasted the slight curve of her hair. Small bright pink lips were pursed as she waited for an answer. 

“Who are-.” Even mid-sentence, he paused to think. Her violet eyes and features were oddly familiar, though he had never met a brunette before.

“I’m Maeve, silly.” The girl giggled, forcing her seat next to him, which caused him to shuffle over. The name Maeve was even more familiar. “Now, how are you?”

“What – How am I?” He wanted to shout in response, but he had no idea who stayed in the dorms nearby. “Maybe we should address why you are here.”

“I was bored,” she replied, a cheerful smile on her lips. She moved her hand to point a finger gun at her skull. “And your mind was screaming.”

Her voice whispered sinisterly.

“Then maybe you should explain who you are and why me. I bet I’m not the only mind screaming here,” he retorted, glaring into her smiling violet eyes.

“No,” she replied. Her constant smile – smirk -was slowly pulling on his nerves. “But I know you, unlike the rest.”

“No, you don’t,” he replied, forcing his voice below a shout as his blood boiled.

“Yes, I do!”

“How?” he questioned, expecting nothing worth while in response.

“I was in New Bostin: New Bostin High School.”

“No, you weren’t,” he immediately responded in straight up denial. “I don’t recognise you and you wouldn’t dare this conversation if you were,” he spat at her.

“What? Scared I was sent by Claire?” she teased, the massive grin on her face grating on him. He lunged forward with his fist clenched, aiming for her face, but he fell face first onto his soft, messy duvet. His head spun from the blow when he met the force of the firm mattress underneath the duvet.

“See, maybe now you know why I’m willing to speak to you,” she explained as he slowly pushed himself back up to sitting on his bed, her body flickering like a touched hologram.

“So?” he replied. Then he paused for a second as he gave it a thought. “I guess you are here and you did come knowing what you know of the events. That, or I’m going crazy.”

“Hah, I get that a lot.” Her laugh was irritating, radiating from someone who believed themselves above their victim.

Something clicked in his brain.

An energy pulsed through his body as Maeve’s glowing violet eyes marvelled at the sudden golden glow around his irises.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> 2009 words. 
> 
> Tell me what you think of this is so far.


	2. Screaming Mind

John’s eyes radiated gold as his ability vibrated through his veins. The girl’s ability was on full show, one of the easiest abilities he had ever copied. Except for the bruising pain on his neck.

Almost immediately, he remembered the ability. He remembered a lilac haired girl running away from Claire straight after she confronted him. When Claire attempted to grab her, her skin became cracked stone, running with hot red molten rock. Claire’s attempt to grab her had left her gasping out temporarily, flinching back, and then the girl vanished as she went away.

First then, he copied it. He didn’t use it much once everyone else’s started to use theirs. The others were easier to use without practice. And less pain.

Now, however, his focus was not to defeat her, but remove that transparency aspect. 

“That’s not going to work,” she said after a few seconds of his eyes glowing full-force, the irritating smirk STILL on her face.

His fist ducked towards her again, aiming uselessly at her overall body, but it passed through her, like her body was an illusion. He pulled his now flat hand through her body as she knelt beside him on the bed, his eyes were wide with fascination as he drew his hand around, much Maeve’s growing ego.

“As I said, that’s not going to work,” she repeated, throwing finger-guns at him as he straightened up to meet her luminous violet eyes. “One, I’m not actually here. IT’s not going to work full stop with that. Two… Well, two’s not important with one being there.”

His body went lax and the power flickered out in his veins.

“Why are you here?” he asked after a moment. If he couldn’t feat her with brute force, he could at least try to scare her.

“It’s exactly what I explained,” she said in an exuberant tone, waving any fears he had away with her hand. “I was bored and you’re mind was screaming in a flock of silence.” Her face fell as she stared towards the wall, swivelling her legs around to hang off the side of the bed instead of her sitting on them, which took her height down a few inches so now her head height was about the level of the tip of his nose. “Hospitals are boring.”

John was absorbed into the natural silence of the conversation without an idea that interested either of them. Then the marble fell down the marble run.

“Who’s in the hospital?” he asked, already hesitant from the answer he feared. Who would abandon someone in the hospital out of boredom?

“Me.”

“Oh,” was the immediate word that slipped out of his mouth without thinking. The clogs were turning in his mind now, unlike in that math’s lesson earlier. “How do you appear…” he started again, waving his hand to gesture to her form, “When you do this?”

The girl leant back with a small smile now on her face. “Normally I seem to be just sleeping. Except, they can’t wake me up. I can’t hear anything from where my body is.”

“So, you’re basically in a coma?” he asked, which made her flinch and her screw up her face in response.

“No,” she immediately replied before a taking a breath for a thought. “Wait, yes. No. It doesn’t work like that.”

“How does it work then?” he asked, leaning closer to her.

“That’s like asking how a lightning, time or one of those laser beam like abilities work to the user,” she ranted, and he dodged her flailing arms. “You need scientific equipment to understand how those work.”

“I mean,” he asked hesitantly, “How does it work for you?”

“I do what I want to do, no one can wake me against my will,” she explained, her tone high and mighty until it changed to down and modest. “In this form, I’m invincible. But I can’t do anything except wander. I’m like the squip. I can’t touch the real world.”

He raised his eyebrow at her, seeing if he missed something. “You may need to explain that again. I don’t know who a squip is.”

“It’s a…” she started, but then she sighed as she leant back. She raised her chin as she looked up at the blank ceiling. “Nevermind. You don’t need to know.” She waved her hand up as she moved back to sitting up straight, looking him in the eyes. “Basically, even though can’t touch anything from the physical world, I can be just as effective.”

There was an echoless silence throughout the room. He had nothing to say and apparently she didn’t either.

“Hey.” Her voice broke the silence, piercing through the layers air, and he leant away from her. Her voice was echoing; a memory brought to the surface of his fixed-with-tape mind. It ripped through the tethers.

“Do you think this is a good school?” she asked. His eyes moved to her face and dragged him above the depth of bottomless ocean. “I mean, I don’t get along with New Bostin. I think you can understand why.”

“You’re not coming here,” he responded without a second’s hesitation. His hands moved to his opposite elbows; his arms crossed over his chest. 

“What do you mean?” she asked, her voice suddenly under a sweet tone that the sugar was clearly synthetic. She leaned towards him, her hot breath hitting his nose. Her hands hit the duvet on either side of his legs. “I can be any shape want me to be I just need a picture. So, don’t take this opportunity away from me!”

She spoke the words inches away from his face and his face heated the thigh of her jeans brushed against his thigh. Her voice turned bitter as she spoke, grating like knives.

“You don’t need to get so close,” he replied in due time. “In fact, get your own space.”

He gestured with his hands to him pushing her away at her shoulders and she shuffled backwards to time until she stood up on the ground.

“Apply to Wellston if you want. I won’t stop you,” he told her as her violet eyes stared at him: unsettlingly not leaving his face. “And if you get in, don’t talk to me. Don’t reveal anything about me. Don’t act like you know me and you’ll stay alive. Got it?”

The girl nodded, her hair rippling with her head movement with her head movement.

After a little while, she said, “I don’t think I’ve achieved what I came here to achieve, so what’s the problem?”

“You’re still on this,” he replied, glaring into her glowing eyes. His fist clenched his knuckles turning white. “It doesn’t really matter to you, does it? You’ll find out if you go here.”

“Okay,” she said as her body slowly started to face. “I’ll guess I will find out.” Her hands were spread out in welcoming around her body before she vanished out of sight.

A breath passed through John’s lips: a breath he hadn’t realised he had been holding. He released his tight hold over his body and collapse hard onto the duvet beneath him. His phone slipped out of his hand and onto the cushion material below.

Staring at the ceiling, his mind began to wonder. Meave…

He didn’t really know her. That flashback implied that she probably dyed her hair. It was probably why he didn’t recognise her at first. He still didn’t, though, but if she was truly there that day, she was definitely at least an elite-tier. And a year younger than him. A third-year.

Pushing on the mattress, he sat up to his spinning mind, the world swivelling. She made a good point. He couldn’t go further down this path. He would lose more people, or one person would be further out of reach.

And he couldn’t reveal his ability; otherwise everything he had ever said to her would be a lie.

His fingers fixed around his phone again and pulled it towards himself. At chest level, he pressed the button down only to hear a clicking snap from the force of his white fingers. When he removed them, the on/off button did not spring back.

Standing up, he reached towards the ceiling, the muscles of his body stretching with fatigue, and he placed his phone back down on his bed before walking across the room. Unzipping a thin black bag, he pulled his laptop out of his case and opened it up. Then he walked back over as the screen loaded and moved his phone out of his way.

Soon, he had Skype up and found that his dad was online. He hadn’t even considered the possibility that he would be offline. Strange writer hours.

The ringing filled the room but was quickly silenced by the other line picking up.

“Hello, John. Why are you calling at this hour?” his father’s voice asked through the muffled speaker of his laptop.

“My phone broke,” he replied in a monotone tone. Will’s eyes went wide for some reason, his face a shade paler. John felt it necessary to be blunt.

“You know I can’t call on your mother for everything,” he replied, sighing. His hand swept over his brow. “I haven’t even been able to contact her recently and it’s only been just over a month since you had to replace your last phone.”

“But its unusable,” he said, a small smile on his face. He lifted the phone for his dad to see. 

“What the heck happened to that?” his dad exclaimed before John lifted his hand to stop.

“Others are sleepin.”

“Seriously, why aren’t you asleep? Don’t you have school tomorrow?” he asked, concern filling his voice.

“I’m planning to soon,” he replied, almost throwing his hands up before stopping himself.

“Well, I won’t hold you back then,” Will said, “I’ll call you back tomorrow evening. See you then.”

The screen went black and a sigh left John’s lips as he closed the laptop down. He moved to place the laptop away and changed into his pjs before freezing as a door clicked open.

His heart thumped in his ears as he slowly shuffled to his bedroom door. Laying his hand on the cold metal door handle, he pressed his ear to the wood. Someone’s shoes tapped across the floorboards, scratching and scruffing. They were probably wearing boots.

The door handle clicked open under his hand and he rushed to the kitchen, only to hit something. His foot tripped over something and his chest hit something. And both fell.

“What are you doing here? And why at this fucking hour?”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> 1772 words.
> 
> A bit less than I aimed for. There is supposed to be a stat thing for this chapter, so sorry if I haven't created it yet and it's not up.
> 
> Okay, the picture isn't loading, but it's up on Wattpad and Quotev, so I will link the Wattpad chapter to this. https://www.wattpad.com/839171529-golden-child-2-screaming-mind


	3. Caught

Lyra didn’t ask Blyke anymore questions to him. Instead, she continued to chew out Lance, shouting at him for his reckless decisions and why did he have to do this to her. Relief flooded through his system that he had found the guy’s cousin, praying that he would see reason now.

Nor did Lance address him. Maybe he should be more concerned about that, but he wasn’t. It was another wave that rushed through him for that. This time, he was glad.

Soon, he found himself rushing back, removing his mask and getting on the train. Not many spared him a second glance – even though he was a school boy on a train at an impossible hour on a school night.

Then the school was in front of him. He hadn’t really considered curfew (they had to put a curfew in – it was a mixed boarding school) but he had done this before with Remi (and Isen). There was a way to do it.

Slipping through the gap in the wall, he glanced about to see the CCTV cameras. None were looking towards him. Next, he kept to the wall, opening the side door he left open by a crack before he stepped through. No students were in the corridor and there weren’t any teachers – as normal. It only took a few seconds from there to get to the third-year part of the second floor. Then he went to his room.

The floorboards did not creak under his feet as he stepped into the kitchen of his dorm room; the only sound made was the click of the door opening. Easily a bathroom trip.

Suddenly, he toppled to the floor, a heavily weight above him. His eyes looked up into gold ones.

“What are you doing here? And why at this fucking?” shouted the boy, his face contorted as he glared down with too much hate for what he looked like. A young boy; a spoiled brat.

“I live here too,” he replied, squirming under the boy. He had pinned his wrists down at his sides.

“You haven’t for the last few weeks,” John said, “and why at this fucking hour? - Almost fucking midnight!”

He pulled his legs to his chest and pushed up, attempting to force John off him. “I went to the wrong room!” He let go of his wrists, kneeling up with his knees on either side of him.

“Well, your new ‘roommate’ will be concerned if you don’t return tonight,” he said before standing up and heading towards his room.

“Aren’t you going to ask where I was?” he questioned, praying that John actually didn’t ask.

“No,” the guy replied, pausing before his room with his arms crossed over his chest. “As long as you don’t die, I won’t care.”

John entered his room and slammed the door behind him. In return, Blyke picked himself off the floor and leaned onto the wall, huffing in breath.

This mistake had cost him important sleep time. And he had to walk to Isen’s dorm room: another sneak around. At least John probably didn’t want to kill him. Probably. No question on his clothes, though. He should probably head back now instead of finding positives from this accident.

He stepped out of the room as the door shut behind him. There was no one is the hallway. Quickly, he paced to the room and the door handle was under his hand.

“Blyke, what are you doing?” asked a male voice (of course, it was almost midnight in the boy’s dormitory) and he turned to meet teal eyes. “It’s a school night and that is not your room.”

“I,” he started, keeping his eyes to the door until he realised how bad of an idea that was. “I was visiting Isen.”

“At midnight?” questioned the man in thin-wired glasses. Staring up at him, his mind wandered to his dirty blonde hair. That was a rare shade: not as vibrant as many other colours. The only people he had met with a dull shade of hair other than him was John and that girl he met today.

He hesitated before he said, “My watch broke.”

“There are other clocks across the dorms. Keep an eye on them,” Keene sighed, pushing his glasses up his nose, moving his arm from where he crossed them over her chest. “I’ll escort you back to your room.”

Blyke stiffly turned the opposite direction as Keene soon overtook his walk. He soon reached the room and Keene waited outside the door. Pulling the key out of his pocket, he turned it in the door and the door clicked open. John almost immediately opened his own door.

“John, why are you up too?” Keene questioned as Blyke shuffled over to his own door.

“You know, you should really get along with him more,” Keene told him once the door was closed. Slowly, Blyke made his way across the small hallway to his own bedroom whilst constantly glancing behind him to look at Keene. “You are the closest levels out of the boys in your year. You’ll be his Jack next year.”

He nodded in response, gulping before Keene closed the door, and left. He had to quickly go back to lock the door and hang up his key on the hooks next to the door.

Even the staff of the school believed John was undefeatable.

The light flicked through Maeve’s eyelids as the blank white ceiling continued to stare down at her, seemingly closing down upon her as if it grew closer to her; its oppressing appearance grew on her conscious.

“Oh, my darling daughter!” a voice screeched as her eyelids stopped fluttering. Her body was forced to sitting as arms pulled across her upper back. But her brain was still blank. She sat there, motionless as the woman and others gushed about her, a strand of lilac falling up her face.

“Ma’am be gentle with her,” ordered a voice belonging to an a short man with cropped ice blue hair and bright green eyes. His shortness, a few inches above the height of her mother, didn’t initially register with his air of a high-tier. He didn’t take shit form the mid-tier woman.

Her mother let go from her hug and straightened up as her straight lilac hair was flicked over her shoulder with the cream cardigan slipping down and revealing the pale skin of her shoulder.

“What’s going on, sir?” Maeve asked as she faced the doctor, looking up into his eyes.

“You and your family were in a car accident,” the doctor replied, glaring at her mum who could not sit still on the cheap chair with a floosy marble green cushioned seat and back, connected by cylinders of grey metal, she had chosen. “You took the brunt of the hit, and only survived due to your passive ability. Which is surprising considering…”

The doctor trailed off when he glanced back to her mum. She knew what he meant. And the other thing he meant too.

“Am I fine now?” she asked after the moment of silence. Her arms circled around her chest as she shivered from the sudden gust of gentle wind from the open window behind her. Glancing behind her, the hospital looked out onto a green park that was surrounded by the grey concrete carpark.

“You are mostly well,” he told her, clicking his tongue in a condescending tone. “But we will keep you in ‘till tomorrow as you were unconscious and unresponsive for an unusually long time. We don’t want it to happen again.”

She nodded, glancing away, and, instead, looking at her mum. Before she knew it, the door clicked shut behind the doctor.

“Oh my God. Maeve. I was so worried,” her mother cried, going forward to hug her again. She did not resist it. Tears soaked the shoulder of her green hospital gown and strands of her lilac hair were in her eyes and face. “You were unconscious for so long and the only sign of life was your irregular brain pattern and your breathing. Oh my… Maeve, did you go mind-walking again? Like your sister said she saw you do one time?”

Her mum leant back, her fluffy wool cream cardigan falling down her shoulders. Underneath, she swore a low cut white crop top with extra thin spaghetti straps; no bra was underneath, so her boobs sometimes jiggled about with her movement. Her jean skirt, riffled at the hem, was a turquoise blue, like blue jeans in a vivid warm filter. A black belt wrapped around her waist twice, silver circles at regular intervals across the belt. Mid-thigh, the skirt reached, revealing no actual skin with her black semi-transparent tights covering the rest of her legs. Several narrow silver necklaces filled the area between her neck and her top. One of the necklaces held a diamond studded silver ring next to a silver ring with six arms holding a clear hexagon top and ending in a point cut diamond. 

“Yes…” she said after a long hesitation.

“You need to stop!” she snapped back without a pause. Her fingers with her long black and white painted nails pointed at her, ending in a long sharp point. She flinched back from them. “It’s dangerous. What happens if you never return?”

Her fingers clenched to her palms, a thin sheet from the duvet between them. She didn’t understand; she was just jealous. She would never get stuck in the world of minds. It was impossible. It was just now how it worked. She had to be jealous. She was the high-tier of the family, not her.

Her eyes threw hard, sharp daggers at her.

There was a long length of silence before her mum sighed and collapsed back into her chair. The chair slid back a few inches.

“You know I care about you Maeve. It is dangerous for you and I don’t want you to get hurt. I love you, just like I love Faith and Kingston. They love you too. Please don’t leave them.”

Her cheeks heated up as she looked back down at her hands. Her nails were chipped (something her mum would comment on later), her skin perfect (something her mum would say was good about her) except some of the splattered ink across her palms (she would have to scrub her hands clean by her order later too).

“Can I move schools?” she asked, hesitant as her heart thumped and echoed in her ears. She wanted to draw her knees to her chest to hug tight to her body.

“What? Maeve, why?” she questioned, her voice dripping with concern. Standing up, she reached forward and locked her fingers with Maeve’s. She looked up into her eyes, short stranding of hair bordering her face and falling occasionally into her diamond eyes. “Is something happening at school? I can contact the headmistress, if you want.”

“I… I know it isn’t that good of a reason, but I want to go to a school that has a higher concentration of high-tiers,” she mumbled, her voice wavering but audible: slow and sad. Her hand rubbed her upper arm, the sleeves of the hospital gown wrinkling. “I… There are issues at school, but the school no longer likes high-tiers – ever since… You know, the incident. No one likes them anymore and I’m the only high-tier left.” She glanced down at the floor by the side of the hospital bed.

“Oh, I guess that makes sense.” Grace gave into silence as she pulled out her phone. “I assume it’s a private school. We don’t have any school’s possible nearby that you would get into and have a higher concentration of higher levels, so which one is it?”

After a second, her eyesight fluttering about the room, she answered, “Wellston.” Her heart jumped as anticipation filled her veisn.

“That’s… That’s so Academic, Maeve. Are you sure about this?” her mum asked, fear creeping into her voice. She hated the doubt that her mum gave her. She knew why she asked this, though.

“I know, but I can get my grades up when I’m there. Or even at New Bostin now,” she replied, cuddling her arms to her chest, which squeezed her boobs up and just above the level of her arms.

“There is also the concern of money, but I can contact your father. He would probably be happy about this?” her mother questioned to herself, walking off to enter the corridor whilst pulling her phone out of her pocket. She left the room. 

Maeve was left in the silence of her hospital room, shivering from the sudden cold.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> 2108 words. 
> 
> Hopefully that will make up for the fact that the last chapter was slightly shorter than aimed.
> 
> I feel like this is the most parenting Grace has done in a long time.


	4. Pancakes and Lemons

Blyke’s eyes opened as sun filtered through the cracks in the shadowed over blinds. Dinging reached his ears, blaring every second and his hand reached towards his bedside cabinet. A bright spark flooded his systems as his hand clamped over his phone. He was in his own room again. A huge second took over his lips.

The dinging continued, occasionally a ringing taking over instead. He stretched up, his hand banging against the wall, and he sat up, looking at the phone. Remi and Isen were blowing up his phone with their messages. His heart thumped in his ears as a realisation dawned on him.

Blyke: I forgot to say this last night. I got caught by Keene when I went back to my dorm room to get medication. I had to stay here last night.  
Remi: Oh my God. How horrible  
Remi: How r u feeling now?  
Blyke: Actually, it’s been the best night sleep I’ve had in a while. John caught me sneaking into the dorm room and apparently John doesn’t want me to die. I guess I don’t have to worry about him stabbing me in my sleep.  
Isen: Maybe he wants to torture you instead  
Remi: Possibly  
Isen: And are you insulting my room?  
Isen: Oh, and where you caught going back to my room as that seems to make the most sense.  
Blyke: Yes, I was, and he might actually, but he hasn’t tonight.  
Isen: What’s the yes for?

He swivelled his hips around and slid off the bed, walking at a pace towards the door. It clicked open under his hand and he took one step out of his room before freezing in his tracks. John stood by the oven, hodling a pan in his hand, with a carton of eggs on the counter next to the oven.

John glanced to the side, his eyes reaching his own, and he asked, “I’m making pancakes. Do you want any?”

His heart raced and he quickly ducked back into his room, softly shutting the door behind him.

Blyke: John’s making pancakes and he just offered me some?  
Remi: Oh, heck.  
Isen: He doesn’t seem the kind of person who would poison food.  
Isen: He’s more of a hand’s on violent type.   
Isen: I’ve experienced that.

Stepping out, he smiled a smile that he didn’t feel reached his eyes, and look up into John’s eyes. It was so different to the smiley, clueless boy who had greasy hair from hairgel he had first moved in with him; now, his eyes were harden gold, emotionless precious metals, and his square jaw was hard set.

“Yes, I’ll have some.” He took a step forward, holding his hands behind his back along with his phone.

“No, they’re all for Sera now,” John replied, swivelling on the ball of his foot and turned away from him, his back to him now. A click was emitted across the room from what he supposed was a box to contain the pancakes. The scent of thick lemon, sugar and batter soaked the walls of the room.

“What? Why?” Blyke suddenly asked, stepping further forward with his sharp shock and tiptoeing to peek over his shoulder.

“You went to text your friends instead of answering me,” he said, dodging to the side to snarl at him. He held a pale white box with lemon slices across in a regular pattern, and were held together by a handle that slid together like some boxes were designed to. “You didn’t even trust me when I offered something to you. You just immediately went to your friends for advice.”

John turned away from him again and he huffed in response and went to the cupboards. The magnets, holding the oak pieces of wood together and shut, clicked as he pulled it open. Boxes of food, and china bowls and plates filled the cupboard. 

“Do we have cereal?” he asked as he pushed the boxes of grain, and transparent bags of yellow pasta to one side.

“Should do,” John replied, not bothering to look in his direction.

Soon, Blyke found a box of cereal, honey pops, and there didn’t seem to be any other kind in the cupboard. Sighing, he resigned himself to finding bread.

“What are you looking for?” John asked, noticing that Blyke was no longer looking in the cereal cupboard. He walked over to his side and glanced into the cereal cupboard. “There’s honey pops?”

“I don’t like honey pops,” he said cautiously, knowing it was the cereal that John brought in (probably his favourite or something). He needed to learn more about him; he didn’t know what would set him off. “I’ll just have toast.”

“There is Weetabix somewhere,” John replied, stretching up to reach for one of the higher cupboards. It was kind of a useless action as he was only an inch taller than Blyke – not more – but he pulled down a box of mini Weetabix with strawberry pieces scattered throughout the pieces. 

“Uh, thank you,” he said, and took the box from John, who threw a small smile at him before he went back to the pancakes.

Time passed as Blyke ate his breakfast and John went to use the bathroom. He was done in five minutes. He didn’t use hairgel again, like he had done a lot recently.

Soon, they left together for classes. There was a glimpse of a second when one of the mid-tiers started to rush at John (no one feared Blyke’s wrath anymore – only Joker’s) but there was a dagger’s glare thrown at her from John. She froze in her tracks, turning away, and she found her friends, forgetting what she had planned. At one point, he imagined John’s eyes flashing gold.

They quickly passed the crowd and he found himself wondering what had happened to cause John’s change in attitude towards his true identity as Joker. Suddenly, he was more open about it (almost). Did Seraphina know? he thought, for that would make the most sense. Why would he care about keeping the disguise up if the only person he supposed cared about knew?

“Blyke!” yelled out Remi from across the courtyard. He turned to see her rosy cheeks and her beautiful smile by the school’s building’s wall about ten metres away. Heading towards her waving hand, he left John behind without a word.

“How was last night?” she asked, moving forward to take one of his hands in hers.

“Honestly, better than I thought it would be,” he told her as Isen walked up to them, flashing his smile at the two.

“You left me last night,” Isen said, wrapping his arm around his shoulder.

“Sorry, Keene caught me when I was heading back to your room after getting some medication from my old room,” he explained, shuffling away from Isen so he could face both of them.

“Damn, what medication did you have to get?” Isen asked as they started to head towards their first class, which they all shared.

“One that I didn’t think I would need,” he lied, waving it off with a hand before he took a second to think. “Melatonin,” he decided to finish with. It would support why he was so tired today, and it wasn’t like he didn’t take it.

“Oh, you have sleeping issues?” Remi asked, bouncing in her steps. The end of her blue ribbon in her hair flew in the wind behind her as she sent a questioning look at him. He guessed she probably wanted him to tell her earlier in their three year everyday friendship.

He nodded. “It isn’t as bad as it used to be when I was younger, though it has become worst more recently. I just didn’t think I would need the medication again.”

The conversation continued past that point as they passed through the bustling corridors and into the empty classroom.

John rushed through the corridors as he carried the box under his arm, scanning the people throughout the moving crowd with his eyes. Finally, he saw her magenta hair threaded with dyed golden blonde strands falling around her face near a group of pale blue lockers.

“Sera!” he exclaimed as he came up next to her. Handing her the box he told her, “I made you pancakes.”

Looking at the box in front of her, she scrunched up her nose but still she accepted the box, peeking in the box by opening it by an inch to glance inside.

“Hi, Evie,” he greeted as he recognised the dark pinkette, wearing her hair in two twin bunches, next to Sera.

She smiled back, asking, “Hello, how’s your morning been?”

“Odd.” He laughed with a smile. He had met her when he had first enrolled at Wellston and started classes, but he hadn’t given her the time of day, like the other low-tiers, once he had met Sera. Maybe he hadn’t played the part of a cripple, a low-tier, as well as he thought. “Keene caught Blyke sneaking about at night. He had to stay in our dorm room for the night for once.”

“Is he not staying in your room normally? Why?” questioned Evie, stepping around Sera so that she was standing in front of her and could see John more clearly.

“He isn’t,” he explained, keeping the goofy smile on his face whilst Evie smiled her small smile back, “I think he’s got the idea in his head that I’m dangerous. If it started now, I would assume it would be due to the fake jokers, but it did start before that. I mean, he did attempt to shoot one of his laser beam thingys at my head before.”

“Oh my God, that sounds horrible,” exclaimed Evie, her hands twisting around as she fidgeted with her arms. She turned to Sera, her eyes twinkling, and asked, “Seraphina, can you believe Blyke would do that? I always thought he was one of the better elite-tiers.”

Seraphina remained silent, shadows forming under her bangs and covering her bright blue eyes. A transparent tear revealed itself from beneath the shadows, rolling down her pink-red cheek.

“John is it Valentine’s Day?” she questioned, her voice like a delicate glass flower carved as a gift in a bouquet. It dripped with irony and John hesitatingly reached his hand out towards her arm. 

“No.” He found his heart beating hard, thumping, fluttering in his chest, as the soft material of her blazer brushed his fingertips.

“Then why did you give me these?” she exclaimed, her voice breaking. She shoved the box into his chest, it falling out of her hands. He barely was able to catch it before it could land on the floor. She jerked forward, her eyes suddenly revealed by the light, cheeks bright red and soaked, and her eyes were brimmed with tears.

“I thought you would like them…” He trailed off after his face had fallen. He clutched his hands behind his back as he stared back at her with eyes ‘hollowed’ with sadness, purple circles under her eyes.

“Liar!”

Her hand raised up and came down. Smack! A red hand print formed across his cheek as he stared at her with a desperate look at her.

Her foot tapped against the floor, turning away from him, and pushing off, breaking into a run. She sprinted down the corridor and Evie looked at him, a sympathetic look emitted from her eyes, before she rushed after her.

Stopping to catch her breath, Seraphina entered an empty, likely abandoned classroom, softly closing the door behind her as she slid down the wall next to the door. A click of a shoe against the hard shoe attracted Seraphina’s attention and she glanced at the door. Evie peeked through the glass window in the door and opened the door, slipping into the room and silently closing the door.

“Why did you do that?” Evie exclaimed, pushing her hand to her chest as she faced her. “He was being so nice. How often do you think a guy makes pancakes for a girl?”

“So what?” she answered, not daring to look back at her. “He’s a liar. He only made them and offered that to me, so that I would feel indebted to him. Which he would later use to manipulate me with.”

“What do you mean ‘manipulate you with’?” she questioned, starting to pace up and down a few metres of clear area in the classroom. “He’s so nice now, but… kind of stupid!” Her voice made an outburst with her exclamation before she took a deep breath and calmed down again, wrapping her hands around her and squeezing her chest. “And he’s so hot now that he doesn’t excessively use hair gel.

“I heard he has a six pack,” she continued, glancing around with a fierce red heat on her cheeks. “Can you believe that?”

“Evie,” Seraphina warned as the girl continued her embarrassing, hot red rant.

“He’s so hot, even though he’s a cripple,” she said, coming to face her as her arms came to rest by her sides, and she stopped her pacing. “I guess he’s not really my type though. Unlike Holden.”

She dreamily sighed as she held her cheek in her hand, staring up at the ceiling, and wrapping her other arm around her chest again. She mumbled, “Holden…”

“Evie,” she warned as she took a long, deep breath to prepare herself. “John’s Joker.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> A/N: 2235 words. I initially planned to post this on Sunday, but I managed to post this tonight. My other unOrdinary fanfic, Narcissist, will be on hiatus whilst I write this, and I will post the next chapter every Saturday. 


	5. Rampage

“What do you mean?” Evie asked. “How’s that possible?”

She stared up at her, her wide eyes crystal-like. Her face screwed up in concentration as she took a second to truly think through the words. “Wait, that actually makes sense…”

“He’s the only boy in the school whose ability is unknown, though he is thought to be a cripple. And his hair black, which would match Joker’s auras,” she explained her thoughts to herself, twisting a loose strand of hair around her finger. £It’s also explains why only one mid-tier was targeted. She must have been the girl who wrote the article about you – about your ability lose. And Zeke… Zeke so bloody deserved it.

“It’s so cool that he thought for you. It makes sense if everything was for you,” she continued on. She stared on, silent, in disbelief. “I mean – Isen, Blyke, Remi and the rest were probably just an example.”

“What do you mean?” she questioned, taking a step towards her. “How have you found a positive side to this?”

“Well, it’s kind of romantic,” Evie replied. Her heart paused as her eyes with her realisation that she did not seem to be lying to her. She didn’t John’s ability. Could he manipulate emotions… 

“He fought for you. I thought that was any girl’s dream?”

“What do you mean?” she responded, her voice freezing the possible emotion and stopping it from showing in her speech. Her blood was starting to simmer to a boil. “I’m absolutely disgusted with him.”

“I guess I can get that,” Evie said, though she knew she only said that to appear that she was listening to what she had to say. “But we, as low-tiers, are safe. He only would want to go after the higher tiers.

“and he spent time this morning to make you pancakes. On a school day. He clearly cares about you so much.”

“No, he doesn’t,” she replied so quickly that she would have cut her off a second sooner. “He wouldn’t have lied to me if he did. Instead, he played me for a fool.”

“He probably had his reasons,” Evie responded, looking her directly in her eyes. “He lied before he met you; it probably had nothing to do with you.”

She growled before cutting herself off and she replied, “He could have told me earlier. And what reason does someone hide their ability for!”

“Witness protection,” Evie answered. Eyes glimmering, Seraphina knew she was right, but her mind screamed as it refused to admit that she, herself, was wrong. “It would be an easy way to hide your identity.”

“He’s not hiding his identity!” she shouted, clenching her fists to white against her sides, her hips, to stop them flying forward and at her friend.

“‘John Doe’.”

Tears trailed down her cheeks, her face hot with anger. His father had his surname – it was on the book – so he didn’t lie. Not about that. Not about that.

“He didn’t lie about his identity!” That would be impossible!” she screeched, her throat burning. It rubbed raw with the pitch. Her mind cracked like a crystal vase shattering as it hit the floor. Waves overtook as a pebble fell in the pond, drowning out the sound of those around her.

Her hand found itself in the air, falling far. The air resisted it. A sharp pain pierced through her palm, a smack filling the air.

Evie was on the floor, her hair falling out of her hairties. Her eyes weren’t open, or only open by a slit. The bang was echoing in her mind.

Her breathing laboured. Her body felt like collapsing beneath her. Her limbs hung at her sides, weighing too much than they normal did. She couldn’t take it. Panic filled her veins, her eyes seeing the entire room before her vision tunnelled down.

Pushing off on the ball of her foot, speed moved her forward – the door slamming against the wall. Glass shattered. The wind chime rung. The corridors were empty as she flew (rushed) by.

Gasping, her hands rested on her knees, keeling over, whilst she waited to catch her breath. She huffed every few seconds, eventually pushing up off her knees to stand up fully. She looked ahead of her and froze, hot blood rushing through her veins.

In front of her, John stood, eyes not leaving the navy haired girl in front of him. She placed a hand gently on his shoulder, her straight dark blue hair obscuring her hands but not her shoulders. The shoulder less top cut low across her above-average sized bust, which John’s eyes never seemed to leave. Her arms were covered by a soft black material of the top, cutting off at her shoulder. High waisted light blue jeans fitted tightly to every curve of her legs covered her from ankle to waist, rounding over her butt.

John’s cheeks were bright red. His eyes never seemed to leave her body as she reached forward, taking one of the rolled up pancakes covered in lemon juice and sugar. She pulled it up slowly to her face before she removed it away with a small bite taken out.

Those were meant for her, not some girl with shoulder-length hair who just so happened to be wearing somewhat revealing clothes and was looking around the school. 

The girl lightly giggled. Her hand was brought up to her face, supposedly covering her mouth. Was she flirting?

Her blood was steam hot as it travelled, flooded, through her veins. It seeped through her nerves – a stinging pain. Her lungs lifted a heavy weight when they contracted, oxygen rushing in. The air then pushed past her lips, whistling in the corridors.

John’s eyes flickered to her gold meeting blue. His cheeks puffed out, drawing the attention of the other girl, who looked at her with her curious violet eyes that sparkled. There was no fear or distrust in her face: just a blank canvas that needed to learn that curiosity killed the cat. Why couldn’t she have boiling blood too? She needed a dark purple bruise on her cheek to feel the pain others feel, but instead her face was crystal clear. She was probably a high-tier. Lucky.

“Hi.” The girl smiled with her perky rose lisp, soft lipstick that didn’t exist, and her small hand waved at her. 

The tears continued rolling down her puffy red cheeks, strolling across the curve before following along her jaw-line. Millions fell: rushing through the water. 

Spinning around, she placed her back to them. Then she ran away.

Before she knew it, the rooftop opened up before her. She hurried to the fence and rested there. Sitting on the edge.

Pulling out her phone, she selected angry pigs and played it.

“No cripples allowed on the rooftop!”

“Fuck off! You have enough fake Joker after you already, don’t you?”

Maeve’s heart thumped in her chest as she entered the school’s gate behind her father. It was the first time she had seen him in years; normally, she only saw photos of him, and that was rare too.

He had changed his hair style. Now his cyan blue hair was stylised into side swept spikes. Wasn’t he mum’ s age or older? Why was he even bothering with millennial hairstyles that went out of style at least a year ago? It wasn’t even a haircut: he was using a light spreading of hairgel.

He didn’t address her much. This morning, he had just greeted her mother with a glare and barely talked with her. They didn’t stay long and it was surprising to find that she already had a meeting at Wellston. The car accident had happened where Wellston Hospital was the nearest hospital, but it turned out her father was currently living in Wellston.

Occasionally, he watched her with a stony hatred in his eyes. Everyone ground her seemed smiling, happy, and it was almost perfect. Nothing could be perfect though.

Soon, her father went into the office with the headmaster and she was left outside by herself. Classes started and people stood at her as they drained out of the corridor .All but one, John. In his hands was a box with a lemon slice pattern – a pretty present.

Taking a step away from the wall she was leaning on, she stepped in front of John, who was staring at were his feet would be if the box wasn’t in the way.

Leaning forward, her hands came together before separating as one reached forward towards the box.

“What the fuck are you doing?” he cried out as his eyes looked up, snatching the box out of her grip. “Who the fuck are you? What give’s you the right?”

“Oh, you don’t remember me,” she whispered, pressing her lips together into a pout. “Well, you shouldn’t question me. I want one.”

The lemon and sugar pancake mouth watering delicious scent filled the air, and she reached forward, her hand turning semi-transparent. It passed through the lid of the box before she froze. Her body no longer responded to her own commands, but she was warm, not cold like most body freezing abilities. It was not designed for this; it was her ability.

“Well, Maeve,” John replied, sinisterly smirking at her. “I think I just figured out how to use your ability against him. That happened quickly, didn’t he? Not so confident now, are you?”

“it works both ways,” she whispered back, her hot breath hitting his face.

His golden eyes had narrowed black pupils in panic. He glanced around the corridor, his eyes moving to not look at her.

“Now, we will both remove this in 3,” she said, looking him in the eyes as he eventually met hers. “3. 2. 1. John, you were supposed to remove it.”

“Maybe you shouldn’t put that much trust in me,” he said back, crossing his arms over his chest with his newfound movement as he stared down at her.

“Just undo it,” she snarled at him, attempting to cross her arms but they did not respond or move to her command.

“You can still talk, so is it really working?” he questioned, cocking his head to the side as he continued to look down at her, not meeting her eyes. He lightly laughed.

“You’ve frozen the rest of my body. Can you undo it now?” she asked again, trying to widen her eyes to pull off a puppy eye look.

“That’s not going to work on me.” He laughed louder this time, smirking at her, whilst he looked down at her, not meeting her eyes. “I believe that’s your line. Well, I think you should know that I’m not that kind of person. As you claim, you went to New Bostin too. Anyway, I’ll undo it.”

A sudden dizziness overtook her body as she stumbled forward for a second. Then she pressed her toes against the floor through her boot and pushed herself up to standing straight.

Looking back up at John, his cheeks were suddenly a rosy red, but he was still looking at her. She glanced at the box, craving the delicious treats inside. “Can I have one?” she asked as she placed a hand on his shoulder. 

“Yes, it’s not like the person I made if for wants it,” he sighed, glancing away from her for a second before returning his gaze back to her. 

“Oh,” she replied, taking a pause for a moment before she reached forward, opened the box and took the one closest to the top. Removing it from the box, the light revealed a golden brown pancake sprinkled with sugar and held the scent of lemons. She took one bite out of it and found a massive smile on her face as the taste filled her taste buds. “She’s going to regret.”

She lightly giggled, bringing a hand to cover her mouth, at John’s sudden screwed up nose and wide eyes.

“How did you know…” John trailed off, looking away from her and instead down the corridor. His cheeks puffed out in panic. 

Following his gaze, her eyes saw a jaw-dropping beauty. Her mouth fell in a small o-shape as the magenta haired girl with loose somewhat wavy hair that was designed to look naturally messy. She had dyed patches of hair blonde throughout and her eyes were a vibrant diamond blue. Her blazer, teal, was falling down one shoulder and not covering it, and her skirt revealed her perfectly carved legs with running muscles.

“Hi,” she greeted with a smile and waved her hand sweetly. The girl looked mad.

She didn’t even respond before she spun away from them and ran.

“She’s pretty. Are you going after her?”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> 2120 words. I keep writing more than I aim, which is good I guess. 
> 
> It's been so long since I wrote this chapter that I don't know what to say here. I guess that maybe everything has a reason for happening?
> 
> The next chapter will be up next Saturday. I'll hope to see you then. 


	6. Elsie

John refused to go after the girl, which Maeve did not understand. But she didn’t know what was happening between the two, so she wouldn’t ask further. Anything could have happened, and John often was a loose cannon.

Soon, John returned to his room to put the pancakes away and headed off to classes.

Her father took the rest of the period before he came out and she went in. The headmaster, Vaughn, asked her a few questions, especially questioning her report card. He was shocked when she explained that she left a lot of homework to last second (he was surprised that she was average a B with that attitude). 

“What’s your level?” asked Vaughn, looking down through his thin-framed glasses with his bright green eyes. He had a small smile on face and her heart was like a butterfly with the mass of pressure. 

“5.9, but it’s out of date,” she replied, wondering whether she should have had it checked before this. She had avoided the school’s last mandatory ability check; she could guess where it would be and that would only cause more drama.

“What do you mean ‘out of date’?” Vaughn questioned, keeping the same passive look on his face.

In fear, the nervous thumps of her heart rang in her ears as the blood-drained out of his face, she glanced at her father. He was staring back at her, his violet eyes widened and glistening, with his mouth hanging slightly agape. She knew he was a high-tier and had the same ability as her, but that was all she knew.

“I wasn’t there when the last mandatory check was done,” she replied, choosing her words carefully. “And I never caught up.”

“Well, good for you, we have an ability reader here right now,” Vaughn said – to Maeve’s wide eyed surprise. “Our deputy head, who has just returned from maternity leave. I’d think it would be worth our time to find out your true level.”

Once she naively nodded in agreement, hands held together in her lap, a white haired lady in her thirties was called in. Her twisting silver hair fell down in a high ponytail and skimmed her black blazer, which was above a white blouse she wore. A flowing black skirt reached from her waist to her knees, held up by a golden buckled black belt. Nude tights covered the rest of her legs until her black flats.

“Hello,” the lady greeted, holding her hand out for a handshake, which she accepted. “I’m the Deputy Head, Mrs Fandlers, and I’ll read your ability level today.”

She held onto her hand for a second as her pink eyes glowed. “6.5,” she said as if it was nothing.

The meeting lasted for at least another hour and they had reached a conclusion; she would not need to take all the tests so she could start classes as soon as possible and she would do the other tests necessary during her free periods. Apparently, they didn’t have any applicants at this time of year.

“Outside, her father decided to take her to the mall, explaining that she will be shopping with her friends there soon.

Then he looked at her and asked, “Does your mother help you choose your clothes?”

“She buys the majority of them,” she replied, holding her arms to her body. “She doesn’t like me to wear certain styles.”

“Well, you can get any casual clothing you want right now,” he said. A thrill rushed through her veins before dread rushed her down. She went to say something, but he spoke first, “I can give them to you when you move into your dorm room.”

Agreeing with a bright smile, she walked through several stores and chose a few t-shirts and jeans. Her dad looked on with an emotion that she could not identify, but he happily paid for the clothes she tried on. 

Then he took her back to his house – mansion – in Wellston and the maid showed her around. She had her own room in the house.

Blyke stared at the computer. He had found the next target; a blue haired twenty-year old, who had her bangs covering one of her gold eyes. Her ability was water manipulation and she was an elite-tier (just barely) – a 3.6. Internally, his heart pierced with fear. If she used an ability booster – well, he didn’t want to consider it.

Then school was over. Remi came over to Isen’s room and they put on a loud horror movie, much to Zeke’s annoyance. 

“Why are your acting so happy?” Zeke questioned with bitter jealousy dripping off his tongue. “You all are no longer royals.”

“It’s not like you did any better,” Remi replied, not even looking at him as she ate popcorn.

“What? That I got attacked twice. Being stabbed multiple times by Cecile was not fun,” Zeke said, crossing his arms over his chest and screwed up his nose. “Did you know Cecile was working with Joker?”

“Yes, that was an interesting situation.” Remi yawned into her hand.

“Seriously, do you know who Joker is too? Why haven’t you told the school? Then we could know who to avoid pissing off,” Zeke retorted.

“I don’t want to die again,” Remi replied, staring up at him with an irritated look.

“What? You don’t want to get attacked twice?” questioned Zeke, holding his hand to his chest in offence.

“Huh, Zeke. I didn’t hear that,” Remi’s voice dripped with sarcasm as she cupped her hand to her ear.

Zeke left in a huff, storming out to his room, and their attention turned back to the movie. Remi’s hand rested on his chest, staring at the flashing screen as silence rested between the three of them.

If he could get stronger, if he could defeat John, then she would be safe again.

The movie ended and soon Remi left for the Girls’ forms. Isen and him headed to bed, but he didn’t go to sleep. Instead, he waited until Isen’s breathing evened out and changed into the clothes he had worn the other night.

Then he was on the train. The cities, fields and forests flashed through the racketing windows.

Once the train reached Meadowsfield, he wandered through the area, drawing the mask up to hide his face, and hid on the edge of a shadowed alley.

There were shouts ringing out in the street behind him: the shouts of a woman ordering her followers about. And there were the cries of others, shouts asking to be left alone, that were only met with laughs. 

Stepping out of the dark shadows of the alley, his eyes took in the scene in front of him. The blunette, Zia, held the jaw of a brunet man of a similar age. Two of her followers – who were all female – held his hands behind his back as another produced a rope like Cecile’s ability but weaker and indigo. The rope was then wrapped around his wrists, so the girls could move to be in front of him with their leader.

“You’re hot,” Zia commented as she traced his jawline. “I’ll think I’ll keep him. He’s a cripple, right? So he won’t fight back.”

His bones went cold as he lifted up his arm to charge a beam through his palm. He wished he had Isen’s skill to aim; it would make it easier to hit Zia accurately.

Out of the corner of his eye, a dark figure moved across the bungalows’ rooftops.

The beam shot out, the urban landscape lighting up bright red, and zoomed through the air. Staring up, all the girl’s eyes went wide with the ice shock and blood-stopping fear.

Zia leant back, curving her back, so the beam brushed past her face. Her nose was tinged red.

“Oh look, a superhero’s here,” her voice rang out like a bell into the air as she called out. The women responded to her call with their own high pitched giggles and taunts. A gang of cats.

Rushing forward, her ice blue hair flew in the wind, rippled with her movement, and her gold eyes flashed into brilliance. The water in the light brown puddles on the concrete rose up into the air and became a crystal-like colour as the dirt stayed on the ground. Then the shapeless blobs morphed into spikes of spearheads. Their tips shone like ice.

Dodging to the side as three of his fingers charged beams, the spears of water fell to the floor and shattered. It had become ice.

Falling to the side, the beams missed all but her hair, singling the ends. A smirk filled her face and she stared off to a spot behind him. A tap came from that direction.

Quickly, he charged a beam and fired it off before he could turn. He had missed.

One of the girls, a pinkette, had sparks forming around her small pale hands. Boosting himself forward with a beam, he dodged out of the way of her charged up hands and into the gang of girls (excluding Zia and chargey hands). Three beams shot at least five down.

Suddenly, there was a red light around him. It was a mist. And there was a new found energy in veins – like a sugar rush.

Running forward, he used the beams to curve his path to behind half of the flock of mid-tiers. Five beams were charged up across his right hand and fired out like an arrow through a heart, striking it’s target. And five more Zia’s gang fell to the concrete ground.

“No!” shouted out Zia from a hundred yards down the road. Waving her hand in an upward arc, the water puddles pulled back up into their frosty spies.

Sprinting further to the side, only one spike scratched him across the cheek. Instantaneously, a stinging pain flooded through his mind: a paper cut. He ignored it, hoping I was only as bad as it felt.

Then a beam blasted him off the ground and he fired a beam from one finger at Zia as the rest aimed at the other two left. He missed one.

Landing with his knees bent, he spun to face the last one standing. Zia.

Growling, she charged at him with water swirling around her in a cloud of mist. It wiped around her head, an uncontrollable storm that was bursting out of her anger.

“I worked for this!” she yelled, slicing the air with her hand, as tears rolled down her cheeks, slathering around her eyes. “And you had to take it away!”

Before he could even think, water soaked the back of his hoodie. The tendrils reached up to behind him and encircled him when she breathed hot breath from an inch away from his face on his nose.

Her mouth opened to say something, but her eyes widened as she fell to the ground from the force of the blow of a black leather boot belonging to someone who jumped from the rooftop.

The leather boots were pattered with small shiny scales along the leg, especially around the thin silver zip. A buckle on a strip of leather was wrapped around her ankles on her boots as decoration. From her knees and above, her legs were covered by navy denim jeans and was by a dark grey baggy hoodie that curved in multiples places, but it was only tight around her bust.

Her dark brown hair fell to her shoulders after she landed and took a few steps. All the group was unconscious. He had no way to make sure it didn’t happen again with Zia.

“What the fuck are you doing playing vigilante?” asked the brunette girl as she turned to face him with her glowing black aura around her dark brown eyes.

“‘Playing’?” he questioned in response. Her chin was sharp in a point, like the girl a few nights ago. “Why would I be ‘playing’?”

“You aren’t acting like the other vigilantes, many who have read unordinary by William Doe,” she replied, taking more steps as if to circle him. “You aren’t doing this to help people. You will have done your research, but you aren’t asking about the ability boosters. There is no reason to be a vigilante if you don’t follow that path as you aren’t finding the root of the problem.

“And that route leads vigilantes to Volcan and death. ‘Cause that’s how it works, unfortunately. But you aren’t doing that. So, what are you doing this for? It better not be for fame and riches because that doesn’t work anymore and you’d be dumb as shit for that.”

“Fine then!” he snapped in response, almost waving his finger at her. “I’m doing this because I want to get stronger and this is an easy way.”

“Oh my God.” She laughed, clutching her stomach, and almost doubled over. “That’s your pathetic reason. Seriously, you are like the same age as me and people are always fighting – in high school. That way you can get stronger with ease and in safety.”

“No, they don’t fight anymore in my school,” Blyke replied, glaring at the brunette. He brought one hand to his cheek where the cut should be, but there was no blood on his fingers. He had healed himself. “Something’s happened and I want to defeat this tyrant God-tier before he drives the school into the ground. I’m an elite-tier, but no one else it trying anymore. I want him to not know I’m getting stronger and it’s working already anymore.”

“It’s not working,” she replied, crossing her arms over her chest as she came to a stop in front of him. “I boosted your ability.”

“What?”

“It’s what my ability does,” she said, “I mean, I also blocked the majority of them from using their abilities, but you would be on the losing end if I didn’t.”

He glared at her. His plan had failed and she was the reason. 

“Okay, it can potentially permanently boost your ability if I do it regularly enough,” she sighed in response.

“Really?” he exclaimed. This could be the answers to his problems. He would no longer be in danger from Volcan or the rest of Ember if he could get her to boost him regularly. He may not even have to get that high before he could take down John if she boosted him during the fight. But she seemed the kind of person decline out of spite.

“Yeah.” She glanced to the side before she looked backup. “You’re going to ask me if I could train with you regularly.”

“Yes, will you?” he pleaded with puppy eyes, glimmering in the little light.

“Fine, as long as you don’t do this again,” she agreed and he nodded in response. “Do you want to exchange numbers for this. My name’s Elsie, by the way. What’s yours?”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> 2480 words. 
> 
> I uploaded this a day early as I might not have been able to upload it tomorrow, but I will normally update on Saturdays. 
> 
> Yay! It finally happened. What do you feel about Elsie?


	7. Confrontation

It had been a few days since everything happened. Four days since he had first met Maeve; three days since he last spoke to Sera. 

Loneliness was in the surroundings. He didn’t talk to anyone. Cecile avoided him too – she wouldn’t talk to him when he tried. Though, no one else paid attention to him anymore. The Jokers had worked. He found a large smile on his face.

“Stop looking so smug, cripple,” Zeke snapped, reaching forward towards his face.

Dodging to the side, he smirked up at him and said, “Weren’t you attacked by Joker twice? And severely beaten both times?”

“No, one was Cecile,” he immediately responding, defending himself without questioning John’s sources. “I don’t care that Cecile works with Joker; it was Cecile! And I swear barely anybody knows about that. How do you and Remi suddenly know about it?”

“Remi?” John questioned, tilting his head to the side. His smirk grew more sinister as his eyes sparkled. Turning around, he called out, “Hey! Guess what? Zeke-”

His voice was muffled by a sudden hand over his mouth.

“Don’t say another word,” Zeke whispered in his ear as he leaned on and over his shoulder.

Drawing his elbow forward, he elbowed him in the ribs and stumbled forward once he was released, barely catching himself from falling once he was released. Spinning around, he kicked him in the jaw, his leg up at an obtuse angle. Zeke crashed to the floor, his nose heavily bleeding and blood puddling on the floor beneath his face.

“Don’t fuck touch me! Trash!”

He stomped away, his feet crashing against the floor as he maneuvered through the crowd of students gathering in the corridors, until he breathed in the fresh air that laid about the rooftop. Walking forward, he leant against the fence like he had with his old throne.

A ding rang through his air from his phone and he pulled it out, a notification on the screen.

Maeve: Hey! I’m joining tomorrow and I’m moving into the dorms tonight. Want to talk?

Deliberating over her text, his mind wandered. Did se really trust him whilst knowing what had happened at New Bostin? Whilst knowing what he used to be like? Possibly – the true him. Then an image flashed through his mind of her a few days before, wearing barely anything over her chest, and his fingers started tapping across the screen.

John: Hi  
John: Do u want to come to my room tonight? It’s num –  
Maeve: Ok. See you then.

He sighed, his head laying back against the metal fence. His new phone rested in the palm of his hand, the knuckles brushing the floor, and he stared up towards the cloudy blue sky.

“What are you doing?” asked a voice. Glancing up, Seraphina was glaring daggers down at him and she was attempting to lean over him.

“Nothing important,” he replied, removing his eyes from her as he glanced up at the sky. However, Sera finally achieved her goal of leaning over him and snatched his phone out of the loose grip of his hand.

She scrolled through his phone, her fingers brushing against the screen.

“Slut,” she said, spite dripping from the word as it left her mouth. She continued to stare at the screen, her eyes fixated. Reaching up, his fingers passed over the edges of his phone before she held it up further out of his reach.

“Don’t call her that!” he shouted, finally grabbing the phone out of her grasp and pulling it back down close to his chest.

“What? Is she not a slut?” she questioned, tilting her head to the side as she smirked. “She wears such a limited amount of clothing. It barely covered her and the part that was covering the small part was just a thin layer of clothing>”

“…” John screwed up his nose and then looked around, glancing to the sides of the rooftop in question. “I’ve seen you wear less. Like, last summer.”

“Shut up!” she yelled, reaching her hand back. Sudden pain blossomed across his cheeks as a smack sound rang in his ears. He stumbled back (however much he could), crashing into the metal fence and collapsing. “You’re the one that lied.”

“What?” he replied, staring up at her with an attempted wide eyed look. So Arlo had told her. “What have I lied about?”

“Your ability, for one.”

“It’s not like I currently have one,” he said, almost instantly regretting his wording. He was caught.

“Oh, thanks for clarifying that you don’t have one copied right now,” Her voice dripped with sarcasm as she took a step closer to him. “It’s not like they asked your current one you copied, BUT YOUR OVERALL ONE!”

She rested her elbow against the fence and it touched his shoulder. Her knees pressed against the floor on either side of his legs.

“Technically…” he started before catching himself. “Is there someone with a force-truth-telling ability around here? Because I’m not trying to say this stuff.”

“What the fuck, John!” she exclaimed, standing back up and taking a step away from him in disgust. “You’re trying to lie to me!”

“What’s wrong with lying?” he questioned as he stared back up into her eyes with hard gold ones.

“Oh, god dammit!” she yelled, kicking her foot against the chain fence.

“okay, I would be able to tell if someone was using their ability nearby, so I guess I’m telling the truth on purpose?” he admitted, pushing his knee up to move her further off him. He threw his hands up in a mock surrender pose.

“Fuck off!” She looked at him, tears streaming down her face. It was her fault. She was the one who believed Arlo. She stomped off, clutching her wrist with her hand.

“And delete the number,” she shouted before she slammed the door behind her.

Sighing, John glanced at his phone and selected ‘Angry Pigs’ to play.

Remi stared up from the sofa in her dorm as Blyke’s feet rested on her lap. Keene stood at the door with two shiny black suitcases in his hands. Behind him stood a lilac haired girl.

“Remi, you’ve been informed about your new roommate right?” 

“No,” Remi replied to Keene as she stared him directly in his teal eyes. He was the reason Blyke had risked his life in John’s dorm the other night.

“Well, you’ve got a new roommate.” He gestured to the girl behind him (who had gone bloodred in the face, probably due to intruding on someone’s life without their permission).

Keene manuvered the bags into the far dormroom with the long haired girl behind with a backpack and a few other bags of her own. Then Keene went and brought one more bag up to the dorm as the girl stayed in her room, unzipping sounds filling the air.

Soon, the head of security left and the girl came through to greet them.

Her lilac hair had a hue of hot pink threaded throughout in the centre tumbled down her shoulders and the floral straps of her white lace top with petal patterns embroidered within. The top reached to just before her thighs tugging in to fit closely at her waist before flaring out. Dark blue jeans covered her legs from thigh to mid-calf, clinging to the tight curves of her legs muscles. White socks just rimmed her black trainers tied with a double bow on her feet, barley a mark on them.

“Hi, I’m Maeve,” she greeted, stepping forwards towards Remi with her hand outstretched for a handshake. Remi accepted. “I look forward to living with you. I hope we’ll get along.”

“Me too,” Remi replied as she responded to the girl’s cheerful bright smile with a small one of her own.

The girl’s teeth where a flawless white. They were perfectly carved like a statue’s into her mouth without a single oddity – a model’s smile.

“So, did you just join the school? Or are you moving here from your own accommodation?” Blyke asked, immediately jumping to questioning the girl. He swivelled so both his feet were rested steadily on the floor from where he sat on the sofa, meeting the girl’s violet eyes with a hard glare from his cold gold eyes.

“Oh, I just joined the school,” the girl answered as she flicked her hair over her shoulder. Her long waves were held from spilling everywhere by two thick gold bands, one clutching the hair near her neck together with the other fixed the end of her long hair into a bun.

“That’s rather late into the year, into high school, isn’t it?” questioned Blyke, scrutinising the girl as she pulled the shoulder of her black jacket up over her shoulder before it slipped down again. Remi glanced at him in confusion.

“Late’s never too late if you don’t hit never,” she replied as she sat down on the sofa next to Remi. She shuffled over, away from her, until her thigh was touching Blyke’s leg.

“Right?” Blyke answered, glancing at the wall in nervousness. “What’s your ability?” he asked after a pause.

“Is everyone going to ask me that as soon as I meet them here?” she responded, irritation creeping into her voice, much to Remi’s sudden thumping heart.

“Yes,” she replied, staring down at her hands in her lap.

“You don’t have to say it right now if you don’t want,” Blyke offered.

“Okay, I won’t,” she replied, glancing up as the door to the dorms clicked open. “But you’ll probably find out anyway.” 

“Hello?” questioned Isen as he stepped into the room through the door, shutting it behind him with a soft thump. Remi looked at him, but he instead stared at Maeve, gawking. “You’ve gained a person… who’ve I have never seen before.”

“Hi, I’m Maeve,” she said and waved her hand with a small smile. “I’ve just joined the school.”

“Phew, that makes sense,” he sighed. Remi gaged Maeve’s rection, who looked him over. He did have a rather unusual appearance (even for this world) with his orange hair that had a black layer underneath, visible near his chin. Her eyes rested on his body, though. 

“I’m Isen, by the way,” he continued, pulling a chair up to the lounge area from the dining table so he could sit down with them.

“Thank you, your the first person to actually introduced themselves,” Maeve replied, completely enraptured by Isen to even glance at the pinkette’s red face as she gestured to the two next to her.

“Sorry, my name’s Remi,” she said, her cheeks hot. Her blue bow bobbing on her head as she glanced down at her feet.

Blyke remained sudden, not saying anything, and instead he was glaring at the girl as his arms crossed over his chest. He leant back on the sofa. “Blyke.”

Remi continued to stay on in silence as no one spoke or communicated around her, staring at the blank tv in front of her before she clicked on her phone again.

“I can see you two, you know.” Maeve broke her face, turning red in the face again as she glanced between the two boys, drawing Remi’s attention.

“Okay.” Isen nodded at her robotically. She followed his eye line to realise it was on the other girl’s bust.

Blyke switched the tv on with the controller that rested on the sofa arm closest to him. Remi threw a glare at Isen.

Then curfew hit. Isen and Blyke said their goodbyes, Blyke lingering at the door, and headed off to their shared room, so Remi found herself alone with the new girl whilst she scrolled through her phone again to avoid immediate communication.

Soon, she stood up, brushing down her jeans as she walked off towards her room, but only to be stopped by Maeve as she stepped in front of her.

“Is there a lot of pressure on high-tiers here?” the girl asked, staring into her bright red eyes. “I mean, are high-tiers expected to do a lot for the other students in the school?”

She stared down just beyond her toes as she waited for Remi’s answers.

Taking a moment of thought, her mouth opened to speak, only to have a memory hit her. John had hidden his level by pretending to be cripple. Seraphina invented the position of ace to abandon the Queen position to her.

“Depends on whether you decide to step up to it,” was the reply that she decided on, much to the lilac head’s gaping mouth.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> 2093 words. 
> 
> Will these two get along?
> 
> And yes, I uploaded on a Friday again. 


	8. Training

Blyke agreed over text to meet Elsie that night. It had been a few nights since she had offered her proposal, the night he had first met Maeve.

There was a scratch at the back of his mind when he remembered her – an irritation that wouldn’t go away. His hair would stand on end when he thought about her defensiveness though it was just barely. She had dodged the question by making him, the asker, feel guilty.

Then she had humiliated him by pointing out Remi’s and his mistakes not to them, but to Isen! It was like no one taught her how to be polite in a conversation.

And there was how Isen’s eyes had rested on her. Only she seemed obliviousness to it, and he doubted Isen was the only guy. It was as if she dressed to be provocative – but they were only sixteen going on seventeen.

“Hi, you seen overly quiet,” Elsie said as she leant on the door frame of the abandoned warehouse she had selected. “You were very willing to tell me everything last time.”

“Oh, just thinking about something that happened at the school today,” he replied, swerving away from over detail. Elsie seemed to know too much already.

“Okay,” she responded, turning away from him. She opened the large doors to the warehouse and slipped inside. “Let’s start.”

Entering behind her, he marvelled at the large interior. The room held up the three storey high ceiling with three cylinder pillars, decorated with wooden panels that ended by the first storey to turn into the light grey painted wall, which matched the walls of the place.

There were only two windows on the very top floor – easy to lookout of with the narrow landing bordering the higher floors with a thin metal railing.

“So, are you ready to start?” She glanced back at him, her eyes glowing with her partially transparent black aura.

A blast of energy flowed through his veins, and he leaped through the air with the force of two beams, placing his foot on the secondary storey railing. He summersaulted in the air, pushing off from the railing, and landed on the floor with both feet.

Moving his head back up, he met red eyes. His foot stumbled back; a gasp leaving his mouth. Her pastel pink hair flowed forward into his face from the weak draft in the room. He gaped at her – had she caught him?

Suddenly he jumped back a step when lightning burst into cackles around her. Dodging to the side, the lightning sparkled just by his side, singeing the side of his hoodie.

Red beams boosted him forward up into the air and he leaped over the railing of the second floor. He quickly spun around to survey the landscape of the warehouse; Remi was gone. Vanished into thin air like she was never truly there. 

His eyes landed onto Elsie, sitting on a cube like stall (covered in a dark red fabric) in the corner of the massive room, smirking as she watched him her leg crossed over the other.

“What are you doing?” he cried out at her, glaring daggers with his gold eyes.

“Oh, as I said the previous night, the best way for you to train as by fighting and I doubt I can really fight whilst boosting your ability; I would be murdered,” she said, throwing her hands up in the air with mock guilt. “I used your memories of auras to recreate the abilities you know. And you’re a God-tier with the boost; don’t be fucking scared of another high-tier.”

“It’s a friend of mine. I don’t want to hurt her,” he replied, fuming. Did Elsie not have sympathy or empathy? She always acted so bitchy. So moody.

“Grow up and stop being a coward,” she replied, huffing as she stood up straight and flicked her naturally messy dark brown hair over the shoulder of her indigo hoodie. “You don’t know – one day you may end up fighting them.”

“We don’t have that kind of friendship that would end like that,” he replied, walking along the metal floor of the landing.

Continuing along, his chin hit the railing as his back gave way to a massive force on his back, thrusting him forward through the small amount of air. Quickly, he picked himself up, and spun around so his foot hit the calf of his attacker.

With his orange and black hair, Blyke stared at Elsie’s work. His ability was exactly like Isen’s even if the usage was different. She must really be the one in control of them.

Blasting a beam, Isen’s copy evaporated out from the area of his chest the beam passed through. It truly was an apparition. 

Leaping forward, he jumped to the railing following the next wall and surveyed around.

“If we’ve going to do it like this then tell me what you know about the ability boosters? You seem to know a lot last time we talked,” he asked as an apparition took the form of Arlo and turned to face him.

When he stepped down from the railing, she remained silent until the air shimmered yellow above him with the semi-transparent barrier.

“The ability booster originated as a part of a set used in prisons – specifically more often used in prison riot,” she explained as she paced about along the line at the front of the open-roomed warehouse.

John could crack the barrier with 1.5 times of his ability, so he could be able to do that too. She times it by 1.5 too.

“Of course, it’s so similar to mine that I would suspect that it was somewhat based off it. The other parts of the set are the ability halver and the ability remover.”

The beam he fried cracked straight through the shield, it almost instantly cracking into fallen pieces as Arlo started to cough up blood. He vanished off into the air too.

“The ability halver had the widest range out of the set and would be used to limit the damage done by a riot before the guards could step in. It was effective – many of the prisoners would become low-tiers with it in effect. Though the effects were temporary of course.”

He boosted himself up to the next floor’s landing with a beam and he immediately looked out the window. It was still night. No one was outside.

Pain flashed against a patch of skin on his arm, like a spear brushing past. He blasted across the floor into the corner and turned. Rein stood on the landing below, her silver hair flowing back as she leaped up to his floor.

He sprinted to the opposite side of where she would land, running whilst using both red beams. She spun once she was on the solid floor, the spider legs bursting out of her back.

One leg wrapped the tip around the railing and catapulted her across the gap. He drew out his hand, charging all five fingers. Red beams fired through the air and her form evaporated in a gradient when they passed through.

“Then the ability booster I’ll cover next. It just makes the most sense – it’s the next extreme up from the ability halver. It’s an injection entered in the arms or neck and it boosts the receiver’s ability by 1.5 times. It may have levels for how long it lasts, but I don’t know that for certain. I think it depends on the user. Damn, it sounds like heroine

“It was used for the prison guards. The prisoners could easily be stronger than them, so it’s easier to just make them a high-tier for a short period of time than here high-tier – who don’t want to work as prisoner guards due to the hierarchy. They can get better jobs with more importance so why would they.”

He stared at her with wide eyes, her rant dragging on. Did… Was the hierarchy really like that? But it worked, right? That’s what Arlo said.

Pain stabbed, flooding through the nerves of his shoulder. He stumbled back, his head flashing in slapping pain when he hanged into the wall.

Joker stood – No John. John stood in the front of him. No mask on. Maskless. His sleeves pulled up. His arms black with defence. A scowl deep on his face. His eyes empty. A scrap across his cheek.

His ability. His ability. He was using his ability. 

And Zeke’s. Remi and Isen’s too. It was tat fight that he remembered the aura from. That fight. That fight.

Remi!

Remi bleeding. Remi hurt. He hurt. He had hurt. He had hurt her. Remi gave up because of him.

“Err, are you okay?” asked Elsie, apparently only now showing any sympathy. “You’ve managed to create a new aura when I sit it to only one at a time. And that’s rather a bad thing.”

She walked forward for once, heading in their direction except he was several floors up.

Glancing to the side, Remi stood there. Her unfirom ruffled, two black lines symmetrical across her cheeks. Her pastel pink hair tied up in a ponytail.

His breath fell short.

“Okay, I’m deactivating it now,” she said, vanishing from his eyeline as she walked under the first landing.

Both vanished. His heart fluttered as the emptiness suddenly filled him. Neither was there.

“Well, I’ll cover the ability remover now quickly. I used the wrong wording, though. It’s not an ability remover – it’s an ability blocker. It was used for dangerous prisoners – high-tiers and God-tiers that easily outmatched the prison guards. Of course, all of the drugs are suddenly out in the regular illegal drug chain now. I don’t get how.”

Silence stood around him until the clicking of the stairs grew closer to him and resulted in the short brunette. She walked across the metal floor and grabbed his hand, staring up into his eyes.

“Was that the guy?” she asked, her voice barely changing an octave. No visible empathy – only curiosity. 

He did not reply. Instead, the quiet stayed around them. She did not speak either.

"Anyway, do you want to continue?” she asked. He stared at her, wide eyed.

“No,” he replied after recovering from her lack of sympathy. “We can train in other ways.”

“I don’t know how to train here in a different method,” she admitted, pulling her hands to be clutched behind her. “We would need more people. I don’t have that much imagination.”

“Well, this place is abandoned, right?” She nodded in response. “We can turn this place into an obstacle course.”

She nodded again, turning away and rushing down the stairs with her shoes tapping across the metal. As soon as she was on the ground floor, she pulled on one of the stalls that she sat on earlier out and the pile collapsed on top of her.

“I’m okay,” she called out from beneath the pile that managed to only pin one leg beneath it, causing her to have fallen on her bum. She pulled the leg out, brushing her dark jeans off as she stood up.

Eventually, the room around them evolved into a course of their dreams; stalls moved around as pads to jump up and down; a few hula hoops attached to the railings and pillars across the large room. Other objects were scattered across the room in a planned track, course, to follow.

As he and Elsie glanced around the building and prepared to leave for the night, a thought hit him. If she could see and manipulate auras, she could also do that, right?

“Elsie, can you read auras?” he asked, looking at her from over his shoulder.

“Yes, why?” she replied, hastily, “Yours is 5.1” She quickly walked off down the street at a pace before he could properly respond, her movements jiggered.

So his initial plan had worked after all that!

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> 1986 words.
> 
> I'm posting twice this week. I wanted to post this early and it is below my normal word count goal (2000 words). I will normally post Friday or Saturday though. 
> 
> What are your thoughts on Elsie so far?


	9. At Night

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Before this chapter starts, I want to warn that this is the chapter when the story takes a sexual turn. It's nothing non-consensual (in fact, although scenes may seem non-consensual, it is consensual (I wrote it)). It is not full on sex though. 

A sigh left Maeve’s mouth as Remi’s door closed behind her with a tap. She had finally left.

What had she meant? Whether she decided to step up to it? She had to take purposeful dodges to not be involved at New Bostin – where they didn’t want any high-tiers in the school, let alone in charge. Were there enough high-tiers here that they didn’t care who the Royals were as long as they were responsible? That couldn’t be possible. Everyone wanted to be a Royal.

She slipped out the room unnoticed. No one was in the corridors at this hour, so there was no one to see or question her as she left the building and crossed the courtyard to the next building over – almost identical.

Her feet pushed her up the stairs, up towards one of the higher floors. Then she was on the floor, turning down the corridor with light oaks doors at regular intervals.

Gazing at the doors, the number eventually came up and her fist hit the door several times. A rattled sound rang out. The door almost instantly opened.

“Hi Maeve,” John greeted, grabbing her wrist and pulling her into the room.

“H-Hi,” she replied as John placed his hands on the back of her thighs and lifted her up into the air to his eyeline. Her legs thrashed about under his grip but it did not loosen until fire hot lava seeped through the cracks of stone.

Her foot thudded on the ground. His hands hooved over her things, centimetres away from the healing over skin as the heat sizzled out.

Glancing over to her thighs, she scowled, the lines deepening on her face.

“Look what you did,” she scolded, placing her hands on her hips. The back of her thighs was now bare from large gaps with singed edges that revealed the patchy scars underneath. 

“I did not do that, you did,” he relied, glaring down at her.

“You were the one that grabbed my thihgs,” she replied, venom seering her voice as she placed her hands on his chest. “What were you trying to even do?”

“Maybe I should be asking about your ability,” he deflected, grabbing her wrists and pulling them away from his chest. “I thought it was a mental ability, one that involved mind-reading.”

“No, it’s a freaking shape-shifting one,” she replied, glaring at him as she polled her lips.

“Oh, shapeshifting. Never would have guessed,” he replied with dripping sarcasm.

“I’ve literally changed my hair colour several times. You’ve seen it,” she replied, looking up at him with sizzling annoyance. 

He laughed to her shocked expression and dragged her over to the sofa. Falling back onto it, her eyes widened as she fell after him, her hand landing on his lap.

“So what did you want to talk about?” he asked as he watched her struggle to pull herself back and up onto the sofa beside him.

“I thought you were the one who wanted to talk,” she replied, gazing off to the wall before her eyes snapped back to him. Turning to face him, she placed her hand on his leg and pushed herself up until her face was a few inches from his, her breath pushing his hair up in a gust. “Well… Anyway, who’s the Queen?”

“You’re already going after the Queen position and you haven’t even started your first day,” he said, much to the heat spreading through her cheeks.

“No, no, no. I just wanted to know whether I would be expected or have any chance of being Queen,” she brushed off, sitting back down to normal.

“Well, I wouldn’t mind having you as the Queen beside me.” He reached forward with his hand, lifting up her chin with his fingertips.

“Of course, you’re freaking King,” she replied, pushing his hand away from her mouth to stop the limit of her jaw movement. It felt clamed up. Her hand gripped onto his wrist.

“Who would you think would be King? An elite-tier?” he responded, laughing.

“Of course not. This is Wellston after all,” she replied, smiling up at him with a lax grin. “The top school in the country.”

He smiled back, glancing down at her bust. The top was straight cut and only revealed the subtle shadow.

“Well, we currently don’t have a Queen right now, but I’ll help you become ours if you remove your top,” he said, reaching forward to touch the thin edge of her top as she tilted her head up at him. After a second, she shimmed off her black jacket and pinched the end of the thin material, pulling it off.

“These aren’t-” she was cut off when a gasp left her mouth, his lips pressed against her collarbone. He sucked at it, sending shivers through her spine as he cradled her in his arms, wrapping his arms around her back.

Her head titled back, staring up at the white ceiling, as his lips laid a trail across her collarbone, sucking the spot before biting. Slowly, a moan escaped from her lips.

“I didn’t think you would enjoy this so much.” He smiled down her, pressing his thumb against her lip. Heat rushed to her cheeks as her heart thumped heavily in her chest. “Your fucking horny too. And you have a fucking fast healing rate.”

He grabbed her wrists and pinned her wrists above her head to the sofa, her body falling the final few inches to the soft material. Her hair became silky, tucking beneath her body and out of the way. His tongue ran along the soft flesh of her breast, it compressing under the force. Her legs wrapped around his hips, pulling him closer to her body and pressing against her.

His lips continued to suck around her upper body, leaving small purple bruises in their wake that soon vanished. Her almost silent moans filled the air as shivers shaked her body beneath his hands.

“John, I think I need to head back to my dorm,” she said. He pushed himself up, looking down at her with a questioning look in his wide eyes. “I can’t stay here all night. My roommate would suspect something.”

“Oh?” he questioned, straightening up and offering a hand for her to sit up straight too. She accepted. “Who’s your roommate?”

She remained silent for a few beats as she pulled her top back on to cover her light beige lacy bra and then covered her arms that were covered in patchy pink and white scars before pausing, standing up and instead tying the jacket around her waist.

Her hair returned to it’s starting poofiness as she replied, “I’m not sure whether you would have heard of her. Her name’s Remi.”

“Oh, I’ve heard of Remi,” he said, standing up himself. She paused, mid-step from the door, and looked at him with pursed lips.

“Is there something wrong with her or something?” she questioned.

“Oh, it’s nothing really,” he answered her as non-chantly as possible, trying to brush it off. “She’s just a tad naïve – delusional. That’s all.”

Maeve nodded before saying her goodbyes and returning to her dorm as partially unpacked as left.

What could he mean? She thought.

Remi sat at the dinning table the next morning with a spoon of milk and cereal in her hand and a bowl of the same contents resting in front of her on the empty blank wood when a jolt ran through her.

The click of the other door in her dorm room sent her heart racing, pulsing in quick thumps in her ear.

A mint-haired girl walked into the room, her hair into a high ponytail with the ends of her straight hair barely touching her upper back. The school’s teal blazer covered part of her white blouse that had a navy bow tied at the collar. Her navy skirt reached her thigh, a sliver of skin revealed between the thigh high grey socks and the short skirt.

“Who are you?” she asked, staring at the stranger from where she sat.

“Maeve?” answered the girl, her name turning into a question.

“Oh, you’re hair colour changed,” she commented as her memory flashed up an image of the lilac head from last night. The girl walked forward towards her, smiling, before she passed her and headed towards the cupboards.

“Yup I did. Is it already if I have some of your cereal? I haven’t brought any of my own yet,” she asked, opening one of the cupboards.

“Yes, we’re going to be roommate for a while, so we’ll probably mistake one another’s food four our own at some point anyway,” she responded, shrugging it off as she looked back in the other direction to her cereal.

Maeve poured the clinging cereal into a bowl and ate it in silence before Remi left to change in her own room. Occasionally, the other girl had looked at her with a slight tilt of her head and her eyes squinting in concentration before focusing back to normal with a screwed up nose.

She didn’t question it, through it sent shivers down her spine. It was uncalled for judgment and she didn’t understand (or know) what had called her attention in the first place.

But she kept a smile on her face as she lead the girl along the school’s pathways and towards their first class, which included their homeroom.

Maeve head to Headmaster Vaughn’s office first and she later came to introduce herself.

It caught everyone’s attention. It was during the Joker attacks and the last new student had been John, who was counted as a disappointment by most of the Year let alone the school. Actually, all of the school – even those who knew the truth. 

No one really thought Maeve could be a cripple, which she could tell from the whispers. She didn’t’ really care herself as long as she wasn’t a loose cannon like John. She didn’t want another severe mess that was at all similar to the current one. Not any severe mess for that matter.

Ding. The clouds floated away from her mind, pushed by the vibration of her phone in her blazer pocket. Glancing at the teacher and double she wasn’t looking; she brought the screen out to view in her lap. 

Isen: Can we talk next period?   
Isen: Instead of class

Her heart thumped, pounding in her ears. What did he want to talk about? Did he have a crush on her? That should be impossible.

Remi: Yes. Where?  
Isen: Rm 21  
Isen: Don’t bring Blyke

Oh my God, she thought. She was wrong. He did have a crush on her. He was going to tell her. She didn’t want to deal with this.

Remi: Why?  
Isen: It’s about Blyke

Or not.

As soon as the bell rang, she made sure that she was the first to leave the classroom and immediately rushed to the empty classroom, ignoring everyone in her way.

Isen wasn’t there yet when she arrived, so she sat on one of the desks as she waited. Her heart was still pounding, her cheeks flushed to the touch. What was going to happen? What was happening to Blyke? Did Blyke do something? Or was this something else?

Soon, Isen did arrive.

“Sorry I’m late. They started questioning Maeve and I wanted to see if she revealed anything else, but I didn’t find out anything new before you ask,” he huffed out, going to stand next to her.

“Didn’t sound like they were going to get anything else out of her,” she replied, straightening up where she was sitting. “What did you want to talk about?”

“Blyke,” he responded. Her heart skipped a beat.

He leant onto the table behind him. “I think he’s… I mean, last night and at least another night… He sneaked back into the room at a ridiculous hour.”

“But he has that sleeping issue?” she tried to justify, try to put forward another argument. At least, that was what her reasoning was. “He might just be procrastinating bringing the melatonin over.” Heat grew in her face as she spoke.

“He’s wearing outdoor clothes when he sneaks back in,” Isen stated. Her eyes widened as she flinched back. “He changes into sleeping clothes. Hell, even the first time he had a mask with him.”

A dam collapsed as she rushed forward into Isen’s chest, ripping the white shirt in her fingers. It became damp under her fingers, soaked through with the salty liquid, as her head laid against his chest.

Why had he done this? He had purposefully made her stop, but he had continued on his own… His level wasn’t even as high as hers and he wasn’t working with anyone. He would be more vulnerable. He would be more easily hurt, killed. 

“What should we do about this?” she asked as she leaned back to look up into his orange eyes.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> 2154 words.
> 
> I think my upload schedule is becoming Friday. What are your thoughts so far and is the warning misleading? 


	10. The New Girl

Lilac strands of hair fell in Maeve’s eyes as she rolled onto her back and slapped the top of her alarm only to discover it was her phone.

Air passed over her lips as she tucked her hair behind her ear and sat up. The light of the screen blinded her eyes as her thumbs frantically searched, swiping lift and right before the movements registered, for the alarm’s off button so she wouldn’t hit snooze again.

She sighed and turned to place her phone back on the countertop only to spot the black and red digital alarm clock. That’s right, she thought. I couldn’t figure out how to get it to work last night.

Her body collapsed back onto the firm mattress; the pillow soft on landing. Her eyes flickered closed.

Jolting up, saliva was flung across the room as a coughing fit racked her body. Her fingers dug into the duvet as her breathing huffed out of her body.

When she glanced at the clock, ten minutes had already passed.

Her feet hit the floor with a smack as she ran over to the wardrobe, grabbing the school uniform she had left at the side of the rail.

The clothes were quickly on her, her hands smoothing over some of the natural wrinkles. Then she glanced into the mirror. The white blouse covered her skin, not showing any of the shades of skin underneath.

Then she twisted a fragment of the lilac hair around her finger as her eyes glowed violet. From the roots, a mint shade took over the lilac, crawling to the tips. Next, the curls flattened out, becoming a straight falling waterfall. Her hand gripped the strands and held it into a high ponytail, snatching a band from the countertop. Running a hand along, it smoothed in movement like water under her fingers, now flat with no bumps.

Heading towards the door, she temporarily froze as a realisation broke across her mind. She had no food yet.

Slowly, she continued to walk out the door with the lock clicking and headed straight to the cupboard after glancing at Remi. What had John meant?

“Is it alright if I have some of your cereal? I haven’t brought any of my own yet,” she asked, praying silently inside her mind that she wouldn’t explode. The magnets clicked as she pulled the cupboard door open to glance at the bowls inside.

“Yes, we’re going to be roommates for a while, so we’ll probably mistake one another’s food for our own at some point anyway,” the pinkette responded, shrugging. How was she so casual about this?

She smiled at her in thanks and grabbed the open cereal box, pouring it into one of the bowls as the cereal clanged into the bowl. Then she moved over to the table once she had poured the milk in and ate in silence across from Remi.

She glanced at her. She was so open, so casual. She could fall for anything and she wouldn’t notice what was truly happening around her.

Soon enough, Remi went to change and she finished her own morning routine.

Then she clung to Remi’s side as they passed through the students of the school, their eyes staying on them. The Isen and the red-head from the night before walked beside them once they walked through the main door – the red-head talking heavily with Remi with an eager smile on his face, a red-tine to his cheeks, a dark ring under his eyes.

Keene had told her that the Headmaster, Vaughn, wanted to talk to her before her first day started, so she headed off to his office once Isen gave her directions.

“Good morning, Maeve,” said the blue haired man, offering a handshake that she accepted. “How has Wellston been so far?”

“It’s been…” she hesistated, fiddling with her fingers in her hand as she sat in the chair opposite his desk. She rolled through words in her mind. Choosing ‘amazing’, ‘awesome’ or ‘brilliant’ would be informal and over ambitious. The blood froze in her veins when she played through saying either of those words. “Very good. Remi’s been helpful.”

“Oh, Remi,” Vaughn pondered, his tan fingers tapping against his chin. “She is one of the more selfless students here. I’d think you’d get along well.”

“yes, we have been,” she replied. A nervous smile formed on her lips. There had been what John said.

Vaughn paused, taking a moment of thought as she stared back down at her hands.

“Are you going to go after the Queen position?” Vaughn asked, turning back to look at her.

“Yes,” she replied, looking back up into his eyes.

“Finally, we’d have a definite Queen,” he replied, sighing in relief. Was their issue with the Queen really that great?

Soon she was dismissed from the office – to the rushing relief through her veins – and headed back to where she had left Remi: supposedly outside her homeroom, which roommates shared. Her timetable was in her hand as the turquoise haired teacher nodded for her to come in.

“Today, we have a new student,” the teacher stated as she entered the room. She gestured at her with her hand, drawing all their eyes to where she stood. “Maeve, please introduce herself.”

“Hi, I’m Maeve.” She smiled through the creeping shivers that climbed up her spine whilst she fought off the urge to squirm under their questioning, scrutinising, gaze. “I hope to get along with you all.”

The teacher, Mrs Hazelwood, gestured for her to sit at an empty seat in the back. Her heart skipped a beat as her eyes met the orange eyes of the boy in the seat next to her. A heat rushed to her cheeks as she quickly paced to the seat.

Then the teacher went on to start the class, but no one was paying attention. Many kept on glancing to the back to look at her, but it wasn’t what distracted her.

The heat remained in her face as she fidgeted in her own seat. Heat radiated from the body next to her, a constant reminder of who she was next to. She craved his touch. The thought sent shivers down her spine.

He could hold her in his arms on his lap. There wouldn’t be a major height problem – he was like 6ft whilst she was 5ft 4. And he could run his fingers along her waist, over her nipples, and strip the layers of clothes off her body for his own enjoyment.

Or they could go out to the movies. An action movie that could be a rollercoaster ride. Or a horror movie where she could bury her head in his chest to hide from the jump scares.

She could have his ring on her finger; greet him when he came home from work in the evening.

“Hi. How has Wellston been so far?” asked a voice above her. Glancing up, her eyes me the green eyes framed by straight blue hair belonging to one of the other boy’s in her new year.

“Oh, it’s been good,” she replied, blinking rapidly in surprise. Who was this guy?

“Well, I’m Zeke,” he said, smirking in striking arrogance. “You may already have heard of me around here. I’m pretty powerful.”

He crossed his arms over his chest as he held his chin up high.

“Anyway, what’s your ability?”

Silence enveloped the room. It was instantaneous. Everyone’s conversations froze, even mid-sentence, and they turned to stare at her glimmering eyes filled with undefined hunger.

A thump thundered in her ears as blood was pushed around her body at an increasing flow rate. What if.. What would they do?

“Why should it matter?” The words, streaked through with her own self-confidence, flowed out of her mouth without a second thought, truly capturing the final last few sprinkles of the room’s attention.

“Especially to someone like you. I’ll leave it for you to figure out and for only me to actually care about. It doesn’t involve you, so you won’t know.”

“What? Are you a cripple?” he questioned, continuing to smirk down at her until she stood in an attempt to reach his level, his eye level. Her average feminine height did not reach high enough to be intimidating to the at least average height male, but a few people leaned away from her with faces draining of colour from fear.

Her fingers reach forward towards his neck and he froze under the light touch of her fingers as he stared into her violet glowing eyes.

A claw, a sharp nail with the texture of a rhino horn, scratched along the firm line of his collarbones, dragging up skin. It gorged out in a shallow line, a build-up of pale flesh clogging up the tip of her nail.

“Do you really think I’m a cripple?” she whispered, tiptoeing up to be an inch away from his face. “From the moment I enter the room, did you ever think that I could be powerless?”

Before he could reply, she turned and stepped away, heading to Isen only to find he had already vanished from the room. When looking around further, Remi had also evaporated into thin air, but her red-head boyfriend hadn’t.

She quickly walked over and poked his shoulder, his head resting on his arms against the desk.

“Huh.” He jumped up, a strand of saliva falling out of his mouth and his groggy eyes stared up at her. “You’re not Remi. Where’s Remi?”

“Not here,” she replied after her final scan of the classroom with her violet eyes. “What’s your next class?”

“Remi’s left? Why would she do that?” he asked, yawning as he ignored her question. His eyes flashed with anger as he finally admitted the truth. “I have Chemistry, why?”

“Oh, I don’t know where to spend my frees?” she admitted, glancing down as she fiddled with the cuff of her blazer.

“Isen should have a free. He’d be spending it in the library or the newspaper club room. I recommend the library. It’s next to the English rooms, the beginning of the hundreds on the first floor,” he said, sighing as he stood up and brushed down his shirt as he headed towards the door. “Anyway, I need to get to my next class. See you later.” He left the room.

She was left standing in the room without any nice acquaintance so she planned to find this ‘library’ when her phone dinged, piercing the layers of quiet.

Her hand eased towards her blazer pocket, pulling out the glowing blue screen with a green notification on.

John: Meet me in Room 104.

Her heart thumped in her ears as a mini panic overwhelmed her common sense. She hadn’t been toured around the school; she didn’t know where that was. However, it emerged before her eyes the fact that it was apparently on the first floor.

The stairs passed beneath her until she reached the lowest floors and stared at the numbers on the door. It slowly crawled up to a hundred and a hundred and four.

Knocking on the door of the classroom, she entered when there was no response. Without looking around, she immediately walked to the window and peered out into the courtyard beyond.

A few groups were scattered across the courtyard and she started to san over who was in the group when two arms wrapped around her waist.

“You didn’t even check if I was in the room,” John whispered as he snuggled into her neck.

“Gah.” She flinched forward, away from his touch. “You need to give a warning.”

“It was supposed to be a surprise,” he whispered back into her neck, an innocence tone to his voice. She turned around with wide eyes as his hand travelled up her waist, pulling her back to his body. “I have someone for you to meet.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> 1983 words.
> 
> I'm thinking of changing the upload date to Monday or Tuesday and Friday or Saturday whilst this lockdown/quarantine is going on (my country has just been put in lockdown for being idiots). My school got closed last week so I'm hoping to write more chapters per week, but if I'm unable to keep up with it I will have to stop.
> 
> And yes, I managed to write quite a big portion of this about Maeve waking up in the morning. 


	11. The Jack

“I have someone for you to meet.”

“Who?” she replied, pushing him away from her. She leaned against the wall with her arms crossed over her chest. “And I don’t want anyone to assume we’re a ‘thing’.”

She moved her fingers to make quotation marks at the ned of her statement.

“Why would anyone assume that?” he questioned, tilting his head at her as he fained naivety. 

“Because you two are very touchy. Especially you, John.” A cough resounded throughout the room as a teal haired girl cleared her voice. She stood in the doorway, her straight cut hair not reaching her shoulders, and her purple eyes pierced into Maeve’s soul, making her heart pump with ice cold fear. “Not much would be left to the imagination to know what you two would be doing if you weren’t expecting me.”

She sauntered into the room and came right up to a metre away from them as Maeve’s cheeks inflamed red.

“So, I thought I told you not to contact me again.” Her glare pierced the air, an arrow with a pinpoint target, but he did not flinch.

“Good morning to you too, Cecile.”

He stood his ground, glaring back, as he faced her from where he stood in front of the mint haired girl – his face in a scowl with his arms crossed over his chest.

“And you also did not particularly mention that. You just ignored my texts, but interesting to see you actually paid attention when I mentioned receiving the Jack position,” he replied back, not moving from when she stood. “I guess everyone wants to be a Royal.” He shrugged it off.

“This is the Jack?” she asked, taking a step out from behind John. She held her hands behind her back as she held her gaze. 

“Yes, apparently I’m the Jack,” the girl, Cecile, replied, bitterness in her glare. “Not the Queen. I guess you’re the Queen.”

She stepped forward, walking up to her, and placed the tip of her finger against her chest, glaring at her whilst she did so. A snarl left her mouth, her lip curling upwards.

“Though, do you deserve to be Queen?” she whispered a few inches away from her face. With a smirk, she took a step back, not glancing away from her face.

Her arm was ripped back, her body flying back and into a desk behind her. John’s hand, wrapped around her upper arm, let go and her body tumbled to the ground.

“John! Stop!” she shouted, frozen in place from where she stood.

A burst of adrenaline rushed through her veins as she leaped forward, blood bursting forth from her back. It hardened, adopting the guise of green glistening scales, with the tip of the tail formed a dusty brown ball of spikes, shinning silver.

The girl screeched over the smooth surface of the ball as the tail whipped in the air, crashing into his chest.

The chair behind him thundered and tipped over with his weight as he fell.

Without a second glance, her foot pushed her forward to the other girl’s side, kneeling down as she reached for her soft white hand. She held it between her two palms as her eyes glowed violet.

“Damn, didn’t see that coming.” The jack weakly coughed into her hand as, with the God-tier’s support, she sat up on the smooth grey floor.

“Are you okay? Do you need anymore healing?” she asked. Purple eyes stared up at her, eyebrows knotting together.

“You sound like Remi,” she whispered under her breath as she glanced to the side and away from her face. Her violet eyes widened under her returning gaze as she stared up with her mouth open in awe. “And yet, I’d think you’d make a much better Queen.”

“Remi was Queen before this?” Maeve questioned, tilting her head to the side. Was that her roommate? Was that why they were roomed together?

“Yes, did John not tell you?” Cecile started to push her self up off the floor, which prompted the mint haired girl to stand up from where she knelt and offer a hand in help. She accepted and then returned her gaze a few centimetres above her. “I guess you’re the new girl I heard about in the corridors, so you don’t know.”

“Oh yeah, this is my first day,” she replied.

“Well, you’ve already become a part of the chaos of Wellston’s Royals,” she answered, causing her to nervously laugh in response.

“Are you going to heal me?” yelled a voice behind her. She slightly turned to pierce his gold eyes with her daggered glare. “No. You can just copy my ability if you do need healing. I know you already have.” She turned back to Cecile and smiled at her. “Do you want to exchange numbers? We probably should keep in contact.”

“Yep.” She brought her phone out of her blazer pocket and they swapped over phones to type in the numbers.

Soon, she left for the library, bumping into Isen on the way. They decided to go together, comparing motes from the first lesson they shared.

Blood was boiling in his veins, burning the vessels that they travelled in. With his eyes glowing with his eyes glowing with his burnt orange gold auras as his skin crawled together, barely scaring as it scabbed over and healed into the skin.

She had refused to heal him. She paid all her attention to the stupid traitor who had insulted her on first meeting, who was flung to the floor for her weakness.

He had only allowed her to be Jack as he promised her something and the other options were dredging his heart. And this was how she repaid him! She attacked his Queen! Out of jealousy!

Then she’d healed her. She attacked her, but Maeve still went and healed her. How ungrateful?

Cecile and Maeve had left soon after, abandoning him to the room. 

She left with a sweet smile on her face, the sparkle to her ever changing appearance. The blouse was a thin cover across her skin, her bra barely covering everything, and the navy bow bouncy against her bust. Nails could dig in, rip the shirt apart to reveal the beautiful pale skin underneath.

Her ass curved perfectly under the skirt, like the moon. The material was a curtain in the wind; a thin material that barely covered anything and could fly up at any moment, revealing the perfectly bare skin underneath.

It could easily be worked around, the fabric slipping from underneath.

And she had left! She had left too!

What had she thought? Was she just being helpful? Was she like Claire? No, she hated Claire and what would even be her reasoning. She didn’t realise she stood in a mist.

He left the room, his hands in his pockets. People initially avoided him, glancing away from his presence, only for it to click in their mind who he was. A few glares came his way with the realisation.

A magenta haired girl’s hair flicked in a ring as she immediately turned in the other direction, rushing down the corridor with purpose.

How far could a shapeshifting ability go? Could she…?

The spike ball had came from the tail, flying like a wrecking ball through the air. A smirk grew on his face. It would be an odd coincidence, wouldn’t it, if she was the wrecking ball for the former royals.

Her breathing continued to be heavy, dragging the energy out of it. Her legs pushed her forward in the rush, not giving a break. He had just been around the corner; he would not listen to her.

She didn’t initially recognise the girl when she stepped into the classroom. It was another new girl, oddly the same time of year, and her mint hair in a pony tail swishing behind her was not the should-length navy hair she had just seen, though both were a severe straight.

But then she introduced herself. Maeve had been the name saved in John’s contact, though the photo different. However, her body was the same, the curves though hidden by the school blouse, skirt, and blazer still there and clearly the same.

Her introduction was cringy, similar to John’s but different. There wasn’t much one could do to not have a cringy introduction in a classroom setting and she didn’t believe the words she spoke – just facilated something that would be acceptable, likable.

His gaze always caught on the changeling’s cups, not giving the decency to meet her violet eyes. The cups were at least a C, something that stood out among the muscle tight third-years (many were high levels in the young population of children). She, herself, had nothing.

Would he have not lied if she had more? Would he have simply not done it out of sexual attraction? He seemed to give the imposter perfect trust and their entire relationship Was Built on Sexual Tension.

And the girl didn’t even know what it was like before she arrived. Her self-inflated ego floated her above it all, not seeing the misty labyrinth around her. 

Evie avoided her and so did the rest. In fact, she didn’t see Evie, but Roland acted like she was a carrier of the plague that was known for killing thousands but only he knew that – or that she didn’t existed. Whichever one he felt like.

For Terence, he was gone in a blink as soon as their blue and green eyes met.

Her heart was heavy in her chest. Her reaction was only out of emotions: uncontrollable emotions. They were overwhelming. Her mind screamed from every angle, attempting to push her in any direction they could. Her actions weren’t though out logically – only thought out by the primitive emotions that filled her minds for these past few days.

So the dinning hall was full of empty sheep as she sped wandered through the mingling students. No one said attention anymore. The hierarchy barely mattered. She found herself sitting alone with Elaine at a table.

“So, the new girl?” the bluenette asked, delicately putting down her panini on her plate.

“You weren’t the one who asked about her ability.” She stared down at her food. Her stomach turned.

“No.” She glanced to the side after taking a bite and chewing. “I don’t think it’s fair anymore. Curiosity killed the cat.” She shrugged, placing it back down on her plate. “Guess it killed Zeke.”

“Oh god, that.” She laughed into her hand. The memory of Zeke’s blood drained face stretched into wide-eyed horror with a screwed nose with the girl darkly smirking in front of him, dragging a claw across his collarbone and peeling he skin away beneath it flashed in her mind. “He had that coming. Who even says that to a stranger?”

“Yeah.” She lightly giggled before Arlo set down, his stern present silencing the table. “Hi!”

“Hello,” he replied. His was sitting with his back straight and his blue eyes sparked. “Were you just talking about a new student?”

“Yes. There’s a new girl in our year,” Elaine answered, her voice travelling at a hundred times it’s normal speed. “She joined today; I think she’s Remi’s new roommate – she entered with her. She was at the back all homeroom and first period with Isen, but at the end you won’t believe who went to asked about her ability,” her arms waved about around her head, “Zeke. But no. She wasn’t having that. So she dragged his finger across his collarbone and – and it skinned the area she snatched over. And if you looked closely in that second, her finger didn’t look to be human.”

“Oh.” He paused. He glanced to the side. “You said her roommate was Remi, right?”

“Well, yes but I’m not entirely sure,” the bluenette replied, looking up into his eyes. “I saw them in the corridor together before and they seemed to know each other before this day.”

“Hmm.” His pause continued as he thought. “Would you like to join me if I visit them this afternoon?”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> 2017 words.
> 
> I'm planning to still post twice a week currently, but I have to see how many chapters I publish as I have fastpass and I want to make sure that the chapters I'm publishing don't contain possible spoilers, so I'll have a buffer of chapters. 
> 
> What will happen when Maeve meets Arlo? 


	12. Pencils

Blyke stuck to Remi’s side for the rest of the day. The initial anger at her for leaving him (and Maeve, which he kept reminding her of) had faded, and now he was almost clinging to her arm. He insisted on going to her dorm after the school day had ended.

“Are you okay?” she asked, turning to him and holding his hand once the door shut behind him. Was he really a vigilante?

“Yeah, why?” he questioned in response, tilting his head as looked back at her.

“Oh, you weren’t acting like yourself.” Walking over to the sofa, she flopped down onto the cushion below. Blyke followed suit, swinging his legs onto her lap. “Err, why?”

She pointed a finger at where his calfs rested on her thighs, pulling a face at him. In reply, he raised an eyebrow at her.

Sighing, she looked away from him. What was his deal today?

“Do either of you have a 4B pencil?”

The mint haired girl burst into the room, her bedroom door banging against the door and causing a picture frame to shake on the wall. Her mint tail flew in the air behind her as she rushed to the living area.

“I’ve got a pencil?” she responded, her voice raising in pitch at the end as she found herself questioning herself internally.

“What type?” she asked. Her mint hair, now down, floated over her shoulder as she leaned with her hand against the wall.

“I don’t know?” she replied, glancing back up to her from her phone. Was she going to be another Isen but with pencils instead? At least, Isen didn’t expect her to know the makes.

The girl sighed as she turned, swishing her mint hair around her like a fan, and headed back towards her room.

Her body involuntarily flinched back into Blyke’s knees when a bang resounded throughout the room. Looking up, the dorm room’s door stood flat against the wall with a pale hand high up on the door, belonging to tall blond’s body.

“You’re…” a soft voice hesitated silently , her body hidden by the two people in front of her. “Going to damage the wall.”

“Remi, are you the new girl’s roommate?” asked a girl. Magenta hair rippled as she ducked under Arlo’s arm and sauntered into the space of the room.

“Wait, do you have a 6B pencil?” Maeve’s mint hair flooded into view again as she appeared from around the corner. Her violet eyes widened as they looked over the trio. “Oh, why are you… ? Oh my God, what the fuck are you doing to that door?”

Her legs sprinted over, snatching his hand away from the door, and pulled the door back to glance at the wall behind it. “You could have damaged the wall.”

His blue eyes pierced into her, glaring daggers, with his arms crossed. “Why do you care so much?”

“Why do you care so little?” she retorted, scoffing as she turned away from him and stomped back to her room.

“Arlo, what are you doing here?” Remi asked, raising a eyebrow from where hse sat on the sofa with Blyke’s legs on top of her’s. “Don’t you care about the school property?”

“The school can pay for it,” he responded, snorting. He rolled his eyes and took a few long strides forward until he was right next to the blue sofa. “It’s not like they don’t receive enough damage from Blyke and Isen’s fights alone. Anyway, I came to see that Bitch.” He gestured to the bedrooms. “Elaine was telling me about her and mentioned that she thought you were roommates. I came to see if that was true. How has she been so far?”

Puffing out her cheeks, Blyke swivelled his legs over and shuffled so he was sitting directly next to her.

“Well, that’s the most annoyed I’ve seen her,” she answered. “Except for maybe when Zeke called her a cripple. Though, I wasn’t there.”

“Over a wall,” Seraphina mouthed under her breath, glancing at where the wall was when the door was closed behind them. Remi had to agree, her reaction was over the top.

“Well, how is she?” Arlo asked, moving forward to sit on the sofa next to her. Instinctively, she shuffled over until her and Blyke’s thighs were touching.

“She –”

“Odd,” Blyke immediately replied before everyone’s eyes turned to him. Heat rushed to his face as it started to glow red. “That’s just my opinion,” he exclaimed, flinching under their gaze.

Sighing, she turned back to Arlo and answered, “Honestly, she seems like a normal person. Other than asking for different pencils right now, she’s a normal girl. Or high-tier, maybe…”

“She’s a high-tier?” he questioned, throwing his arms over the back of the sofa. She leant forward and Blyke’s arm wrapped around her waist, pulling her closer to his chest. She welcomed him.

“I don’t know. She hasn’t said,” she mumbled in reply, refusing to meet his eyes.

“So why would you assume that?” he replied, looking down at her from where he sat. “Why would a high-tier not be open about their level?”

“You know, there’s someone called John at this school,” Elaine whispered as the room fell into eery silence.

“Who apparently hid his ability so he wouldn’t have to deal with you,” Remi finished, her voice remaining on Elaine’s level.

“I can relate,” Seraphina replied, her voice dripping.

Grunting, Arlo stood up and left with his shoes clicking against the floorboards, the girl’s following and slamming the door behind them.

She turned to face Blyke, a small smile on her face, and asked, “That was… unwanted. Would you like to go to my room in case they come back?”

Maeve’s knee drawn up to her chest as she sat on the plain chair, the cushion crafted from threated straws, at the basically empty desk in front of her. A lamp shone it’s light onto the outline of a figure on a sketch book pages: the only light source in the room except from the light of the moon slipping through the cracks in the curtain.

Her knuckles were blanched white as they gripped onto the pencil in her hand – her left hand this time. Lilac strands of hair flayed about in it’s long running waterfall as the mint green drained out of her locks without her control. The puffs skimmed into her eyeline, catching the droplets of tears on their thin threads like dew on the early morning grass. A puddle formed on the table, glimmering in the slivers of available light, beneath where her face hung above.

She could hear every word they said.

Bitch. She was a bitch. At least se was according to many. Smiled at them but refused to talk. Talked to them but refused to hang out. Talked to them multiple times but refused to come over to spend time on his bed.

Whore. Wore crop tops at the wrong time and shorts too short. Wanted to keep all their eyes on her, like high tiers always did, but they didn’t want a high tier now, so she had to wear the least covering clothes possible. It couldn’t be her dress style. Or the clothes her mother had decided to buy for her.

Slut. Daughter of a slut. That mid-tier who’s first marriage to a relative rich elite tier flopped but became addicted to the lifestyle. Wore the clothes, the jewellery, to grasp their attention. Don’t care what others thought of her even if she didn’t hit her target.

Or odd. The least insulting word of them all. Or the worst. That elite tier who refused to help Claire. Them. That high tier who wanted to be a royal but why would anyone want a high tier in charge? They were just a bomb waiting to go off. That high tier who agreed with John. Odd.

Normal. Why couldn’t she just be normal?

John was right. Remi was naïve. The door had banged shut miles ago but she opened it again. There were monsters outside there. She shouldn’t open it. She shouldn’t open. She should warn her.

It failed.

A cackle of a laugh flooded out of her loose lips, filling the air with horrendous giggles. It had subsided into giggles. Was she going insane?

Bringing a hand to wipe the tears away from her eye, the salty drops ran down the back and sprinted off at her elbow. A sob broke out of her mouth.

_Honey blonde hair fell straight down her face, bordering her fair pale face. Her chin ended in a sharp point, a heart shape face with a relatively large forehead that was fixed in with the soft break of her hair._

_A dark hoodie hung loosely over her slim frame, pulled tight around her chest, and her small hands fitted in the large pocket over her stomach. Black jeans crossed over with leggings for flexibility, fitted to the small curves of her hips and the tight muscles of her legs. Leather boots decorated with scales, a thick platform supporting the under of the boot, and the flexible leather reached up from her ankle to just under her knee._

_And her dark brown eyes pierced into the air in front of them._

_In front of her stood another honey blonde girl. Until the first girl, she was no longer a teenage but instead in her early twenties. Her blonde hair was messy, falling into waves that entwined together, and fell over her shoulders into strands. A black sweater crop top was partially tucked into light blue jeans but it curled up at a point around her stomach, revealing a sliver of fair skin. Around her waist, a black belt pulled the jeans tight studded with silver buttons. White trainers were worn over her feet with navy streaks along the sides and the white had splatter of dark brown mud in places._

_Looking down at her with her burning gold eyes, she smiled with crinkles around her eyes and said, “I have no clue where we are.”_

_“Seriously?” the young girl replied, staring up from where she stood 5ft tall. Her sadistic smile fell as fear resounded in her heart. “How are we going to get home? This place has no signal; the authorities don’t give low-tier areas signal.”_

_She turned to face her sister, her nose screwed up as she scowled. Her arms raised her hands up to around her heat, bent at the elbows, and her palms laid flat._

_Her sister’s eyes were wide, the whites of her eyes showing all round, and her mouth fell open whilst blood drained from her face, leaving it white. Her hand reached forward to her wrist and pulled her behind her tall body._

_Her own eyes widened as her body was jerked behind her sister’s to shield her from the other person._

_“Auntie?”_

_A black mask was pulled over her nose, covering the lower half of her face, and a black trench coat hung around her slim body. A hat was pulled over her head, but her perfectly straight hair fell down her back in a high ponytail. Her burning cold eyes, the same eyes as her oldest niece, pierced through the souls and her blonde eyebrows knitted together._

_Two sets of ombre claws burst forth from her knuckles and orange fire swirled around them._

_“Ella, run,” her sister ordered, pushing her away with her hand as her eyes glowed gold – locked onto the woman. Her own claws broke through the skin around her knuckles and flames burst forth._

_Her heart thumped in her ears. Blood throbbed in her veins. She sprinted down the road, not looking back as her legs moved beneath her. She did not stop running for miles._

Couldn’t she had done more?

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> 1970 words.
> 
> What do you think just happened?


	13. Chapter 13

A heat covered Blyke’s cheeks as hot water ran down along the muscles of his body. 

She had asked him to stay. She had invited him to her room.

He had sat on her messy unmade bed whilst she gathered necessary items from across the room where she had left them in a previous rush until she sat next to him once she was finished. Her head rested on his shoulder and her eyes slowly fluttered close. Her hand reached forward and rested on the other shoulder.

Softly, he clutched her body and aided her slowly down so her head rested upon her cream pillow and then pulled the soft purple duvet over her frame before he left to head back to Isen’s room. He switched the lights off behind him once he had notified Maeve that he was leaving and she would need to lock the door behind him.

Arlo had drained the energy from Remi! His fists clenched at his sides. He had come to put a pebble back in the wall though he could not see where it would fit. Remi’s hair was fraying from his actions, slipping out of it’s bow.

Did it really mattered whether Maeve conformed to the hierarchy or not? John hadn’t and he had done so for a good reason. He was excessively violet with his ability, brutalising his subjects, and had made no decisions or retained any authority as King so far. He didn’t want to be King! But all his actions were targeted at Arlo. Arlo was the reason of all of this; Arlo was the cause for all of Remi’s suffering.

For all they knew, it would turn out the same with Maeve. They should leave it alone. She wasn’t going to do anything.

But Arlo was the reason Remi was hurt. Why had he even tell him he would be the strongest male in the school if he knew that John existed back then? He was the cause of every bad thing that had happened since what even had happened between John and Arlo.

The shower turned off with a turn of the wheel and he walked out. Once he had his school uniform, he checked his phone to see a green notification.

Elsie: Is tonight good?  
Blyke: Yes. See you then.

When he stepped out of the bathroom, Isen glanced up at him in question before he looked back at his laptop screen.

“School’s not on for another half hour,” he stated, not focusing off of his screen as his fingers moved over the clicking keyboard.

“You’ve been up from six on your laptop, working on whatever your working on,” he replied, walking over and checking through the books in his bag. “What was I meant to do?”

“I guess that makes sense,” Isen said before returning his attention to his work.

Silence settled between them as Blyke leaned against the wall and scrolled through his phone. Nstagram grew boring (everyone followed him and no the other way around, though Remi had more followers).

He selected the photo app and scrolled through the recent photos. There was such a low concentration compared to the past.

“I’m finished. Do you want to head to class early?” Isen asked, standing in front of him. His form towered over him, causing his neck to ache at the incline to look up into his eyes.

“Okay.” He stood up and brushed his trousers down.

Soon, they were outside the dorms and Remi ran towards them with a girl with baby pink hair trying to keep up with her without bursting into a run in her strapless school shoes. Her baby pink hair was tied in two twin Dutch braids and tumbled down her shoulders.

“You changed your hair again,” Isen stated, walking over to stand in front of her. Heat rushed to her cheeks as she clutched her large leather black handbag in front of her.

“Yeah, I like to change it,” she replied, smiling a small smile whilst spinning one braid around her finger. “It’s rather easy for me.”

“That’s cool,” he replied. He reached forward towards her arm. “Would you like me to carry your bag?”

“Yes, please.” She passed him the bag and he hefted it up with a slight struggle.

“Those two seem to be getting along well,” Blyke told Remi. She smiled and glanced to the side.

“I guess we did leave them for several periods together. By themselves,” she replied, enhancing the fact that they were left alone. His heart wavered in chest as he had to block off a train of thought.

He didn’t immediately respond. Instead, he pondered what happened yesterday. Her hand was brushing against his.

“Why did you leave me yesterday?”

“What?” she exclaimed, staring up at him with wide eyes. Her mouth fell open into an ‘o’ shape.

“Why. Did. You. Leave. Me. Yesterday?” he explained, hands moving along with his body as he talked. “Maeve had to wake me up. I wouldn’t have left it wasn’t for her.”

“Okay. Okay,” she said, weakly smiling at him. “Isen just wanted me to check over some of the news story. Arlo’s been strict with them recently.”

“But Isen doesn’t need your help to check that. If he really needs help, he can ask Arlo,” he replied, grabbing her wrist and pulling her towards him.

“Arlo makes him panic,” she said, shaking his hand off her wrist. “And I kind of get why now too.”

“So?” he asked, his mind whirling with why that shouldn’t matter. “Isen’s the head of the Newspaper. He can deal with his own problems.”

Isen is his own person. He didn’t need Remi’s help with dealing with that tyrant. Remi shouldn’t have to interact with him. He had hurt her.

“He wanted my help, so I helped him,” she replied. She stared off at him, pulling her hand flat against her chest in defiance. Her bright red eyes glared up.

“You didn’t need to and I could have helped too,” he answered. He went forward, attempting to hold her hands and pull her closer to him, but she took a step away. Why was she avoiding him?

“Why are you telling me to not help others?” She took a step towards him and placed her hands on his chest. He attempted to reach forward towards her too, but she shoved him away before he could succeed, knitting her eyebrows together. His face fell. “Blyke, that’s what I’ve always done.”

Before he could react, she turned and her feet stomped against the ground as she ran. She vanished off inside the building with Isen and Maeve, following behind her, not glancing to him.

Why was she leaving? He would do anything for her. She didn’t need to leave him. He would do everything for her.

Stepping through the classroom door, Isen passed back Maeve her handbag and she headed off to the back of the classroom where she had sat in the lesson the previous day. She took her seat and pulled out her book, sitting patiently with the pen in her right hand ready to take notes.

The class passed before her eyes and steadily the pages filled up with inky words. She wasn’t going to slack like before. She would do better here.

Then she went into the next period, which she shared with Remi and no one else that she knew. Remi directed the teacher to allow her to sit next to her and she continued to whisper in her ear throughout the lesson.

“Hey, what do you think of this?” she asked, keeping her voice out of the teacher’s hearing range.

In her hand was a phone that was not her own (they were roommates, she used her phone all the time) but instead her red-head boyfriend’s. On the screen, she had selected a messenger app on particular message chat.

“Why do you want me to look at your boyfriend’s phone?” she whispered back, trying to not fully remove her attention from the board. “That just looks like planning to meet up for a class project.”

“It’s not my boyfriend’s phone. I don’t have a boyfriend,” she hissed back, whispering. She screwed up her nose in offence. “Its Blyke’s.”

“The red-head?” she questioned, the name only ringing a dim bell in her mind.

She nodded in answer. “Yes. Did you not remember his name? How many times have you two interacted in the past day?”

“Too many times for me to politely ask him,” she replied before turning back to the other topic. “So, he’s your boyfriend?”

“Ugh.” Remi collapsed back in her chair, her head lying against the window. A sigh passed through her lips as her muscles collapsed. “He’s not my boyfriend; he’s a friend of mine. I’m trying to ask you your opinion on this text.”

“Well, I don’t,” she replied, twisting her pen between her fingers. “I don’t know who she is. It could be another classmate who he was partnered with for coursework or an emotionless hook up. Emotionless. Cheating texts always contain more emotion, even just physical, so that’s unlikely. If you want to ask him out, you should instead of sitting in your jealousy.”

“I’m not jealous!” she shouted in reply. She pushed herself up out of her chair, which cluttered onto the floor behind her, and she whipped her hand in a ring around her in outrage.

“Remi. Maeve. Stop talking during my class. If you want to talk, both of you have permission to skip classes, “the teacher yelled at them, scowling and wavering her pen. Students around them whispered in outrage and jealousy.

“Sorry miss,” Maeve said as she faced the teacher, a light teasing smile on her face, before she disregarded her and turned her attention back to Remi. “You so are jealous.”

Remi remained silent, a hot blush staying on her cheeks, as she completed the remaining tasks set in the class.

Soon, the class eneded and she headed to her first face – without any of her three possible friend she was making.

Room 104 she arrived at again. John leaned against the wall and the windowsill belonging to window above it. His gold eyes immediately locked onto hers through the small glass window in the door as she clicked it open.

Her shoes touched the surface of the floor as she briskly walked over. John’s eyes stayed on her as she moved.

“Touch me.” The words fell over her lips as she stood still before him, holding her head up high to reach his eyeline. His arms surged forward and wrapped around her, pulling her closer. Her hands laid upon his chest, pressing against the hard muscle that was across his body, and one of his hands slipped away from her waist to pull a band out of her hair.

“What are you doing?” she asked him, pushing her eyes to stare at one of the braids where the ends were starting to twist out of the mould. “I actually spent awhile on these today.”

“You’d do better without them,” he replied, his fingers running through the braid and pulling it apart to its normal waviness. 

“But you didn’t ask me about it,” she replied, continuing her stare at the braid as it fell apart. “And that wasn’t what I meant either.”

“Really?”

He smirked, fitting his hand on her upper back and waist, and pulled her up against his body. A heat rushed to cover her cheeks as his hot breath hit her face. His lips hit her own, pushing against her, and she laid in his arms.

His hand travelled down to her thigh, climbing up beneath her skirt. It slid over her clit, causing her to gasp and her mouth opened slightly. His tongue slipped in her mouth, running over hers. 

Then both his hands reached up to her thighs, gripping in to the skin, and lifted her up, so he was no longer leaning down to kiss her. Her legs wrapped around his waist, flushing hot, as her pants felt wet beneath her. His fingers moved up to her hair, entangling in the strands, and pulled the final pieces out of the starting Dutch braids. She didn’t notice.

Breaking off, he whispered, “You don’t strike me as the sort of person who would want to do this in school. Meet me in my room tonight>”

He placed her down on the desk, removing his hands from her body, and her violet eyes stared up at him with shattering shock.

Her heart was left stuttering in her chest as he left her behind in the empty room. Her breath came out in short gasps and her breasts ached.

Sighing, she left the room and eventually went to her next class that she shared with the rest.

Then the class was over and Remi lead her to lunch, losing Isen and Blyke along the way. Remi was skipping ahead, bouncing along, but she continued when Maeve could not.

Her fingers reached forward and touched the yellow transparent barrier in front of her.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> 2183 words
> 
> What's going to happen?
> 
> I have an idea for another Unordinary fic. It would be a crossover with One of Us is Lying where it follows a similar premise. I think it would be Seraphina, John, Blyke and Remi (though I might swap her out for someone else). What do you think?


	14. Confrontation by Arlo

Remi’s lightning was sizzling in her blood as she burst forward in bounces with hyperactivity. But then silence fell around her, starting from behind her.

When she turned around, she did not expect to see either Blyke or Isen; they had left to do something awhile ago as they were on their walk to lunch. Instead, Blyke and Isen stood, astonishment covering their faces, what seemed to be several metres behind where Maeve stood still.

Blood dripped down her finger, which reached up to the transparent yellow bubble, surrounding her. Her violet eyes were wide, glimmering in the sunlight, and her mouth hung open in fear.

“Well, you didn’t see that coming, did you?” asked a voice coming from directly next to her. She flinched, turning her shoulders to face the speaker.

Arlo stood before her, covering above the crowd. A smirk covered his face as his arms crossed over his chest. He stepped forward, walking up to the barrier over the girl.

Remi’s heart thundered. What was he doing? Didn’t she convince him it wasn’t an issue?

“Who the fuck are you?” she cried out, the waves of her now down baby pink spinning around her head. A tear ran down her check as her eyes started to glow. “Why do you keep bothering me?”

“You weren’t conforming to the hierarchy,” he told her, moving his hand along the barrier. He held his head up high as she glared up at him. “And yet, now you will.”

“How am I not conforming to the ‘hierarchy’ and why will I ‘suddenly’ conform to it?” she questioned, crossing her own arms over her chest and held her ground. And Remi had to agree, what did he even mean?

“You’ll only get out of there when you conform to it.”

Suddenly, it dawned on her what his plan was and she got what he was attempting to do. As the second strongest in the school, there was no way she could break the barrier. Though, she didn’t know or understand how he would know she had conformed to it.

“And how will I stay in here when I could just leave at any time,” she replied, using both hangs to gesture to where she was standing. She smirked.

Clearly, Remi though, she didn’t understand how Arlo’s ability worked.

“I think you’ve already had a taste of what reflective damage my barrier can do,” he said, pacing to one side for a few steps. “Do you really want to see how much blood you can lose?”

Whispers rustled out in waves across the courtyard like wildfire; all the onlookers took this as a chance to whisper conversations and rumours about the Dethroned King fighting the New Girl.

“All need to do in state your level and ability in earshot of everyone here, and I will take the barrier down. You’ll be free to go. Do you understand?”

He stood in the now silent courtyard, where you could here a needle drop, but the girl remained in her own quiet as she refused to answer. He could think he was starting to succeed except a dark smile grew on her face.

“You’re the Dethroned King?” she asked, keeping her gaze looked to the floor and holding her hands behind her back (out of sight).

“Yes.” He hesitated, the thought train travelling at full speed as they tried to comprehend her. Spark flew off the glowing orange metal.

“I can see why you were dethroned.”

A cackle of a laugh burst out of her lips as she moved her head up. Vioelet eyes met blue and she locked his gaze to her own. He did not dare look away from her as sniggers from other students became background noise.

Remi found herself glued to the spot; her eyes locked onto the events transpiring before her. Blyke and Isen found themselves in a similar predicament from behind Maeve, but they dared to share glances between each other, unlike the other two.

How could she? 

“This barrier supposedly allows air through to breathe, right?” she asked, the crazy look vanishing from her fac.e He nodded in response, carefully measuring out the awkward motion.

“It would be pretty useless if it didn’t, I guess. I bet its original design was to protect the people inside, not to trap them>”

Arlo scowled, his eyebrows knitting together, as the girl opened up her palm, the uninjured hand lying flat.

“See, that’s how much effect your barrier had on me,” she bragged. Remi stared forth. She had seen her bleeding from a wound on her hand, her finger. It had injured her.

“And yet, you still won’t get out until you tell us your ability,” he repeated. The girl was still unfazed.

“Really?” she questioned, reaching her hand up to the barrier. A violet aura surrounded her irises and the outline of her body blurred.

Her fingers skimmed the barrier before they passed through. Gasps radiated throughout the gathered crowd, curious eyes flicking along, but then cheers bursted out.

With a smile, she stepped through the barrier with barely a flinch and smirked up at Arlo.

“I guess I didn’t have to say my ability,” she replied, her form solidifying as she walked away. Remi caught the moment her eyes quit glowing, after she quickly glanced at her hand. Did she have a passive? It would make sense at how her hair kept changing colours and would stay that way if she used her ability to change it.

A sound left Arlo’s mouth as he attempted to say something else, but she walked away before he could. Her long strides made her exit flash before their eyes and she did not wait for them at lunch. 

Silently, Blyke and Isen walked to her side and stood in the quiet as everyone else dispersed into their lunch break.

Arlo walked away, soon gaining Elaine by his side, and left to the dining room.

“Let’s go to lunch,” Blyke suggested, offering his hand out to her. She accepted it, walking along beside him as they went through the corridors. She remained silent even as the two boys talked and tried to talk to her.

Once they held the trays in their hands, Isen pointed out the baby pink head on a table, but as soon as their eyes met across the room, she turned away, standing up and scrapping off her tray. 

However, she still insisted on sitting there, a pray of a hope that she would turn around to join them again. She didn’t. She had vanished from the room.

“Oh my God. Did the former Royals just sit next to us?” questioned a girl that Remi only just looked up at. She wasn’t outstanding from the crowd in appearance – or personality apparently.

She ignored them for the rest of lunch, heading to her next period with Blyke.

“Are you okay, Remi?” he asked, turning back to her as they arrived at the classroom. His gold eyes stared back at her and heat rushed to her cheeks.

Her stomach blurred, vibrating, and her head fell against his shoulder. She felt queasy.

“I’m fine,” she mumbled into his blazer. 

He leant back, causing her head to lift up, and she gazed up at him. He reached over and placed his hand on her forehead.

“You’re hot. You’re flushed too,” he said, moving his hand away back to her shoulders where the other hand lay. “Are you sure you’re okay?”

“I’m fine.” She didn’t understand why she was hot, but it had to fade. It was just emotional. “I just didn’t expect Arlo to do that.”

“Yeah,” he replied. She was almost surprised he agreed with her over the disappointment in Arlo’s actions. She could tell from his tone, but he had previously idolised Arlo like Arlo had looked up to Rei. “Though I’m surprised it didn’t work. It was the wrong actions but with anyone else it would have worked. Luckily, it was targeted at Maeve.”

“I guess it was lucky that it was Maeve. Though, not lucky for her,” she said. Maeve had vanished from her sight since that moment. “It makes me wonder what else he had done which has sabotage our attempts to lessen the fake Jokers. It could have caused so much damaged.”

“What makes you say that?” he asked, his hands clipping from his shoulders, and he pulled both of their chairs out.

“He targeted Maeve because she wasn’t admitting her part in the hierarchy,” she explained, taking a seat and Blyke soon followed suit. “Arlo ambushed John probably as he was pretending to be a cripple. I guess he learned from that, but in the wrong way.”

“Wait, John was pretending to be a cripple?” questioned a hot pink haired mid-tier girl who sat in front of them in this class.

“Fuc-” she started, cutting herself off as she stared at the girl in fear.

“Oh God!” exclaimed the mid-tier, jumping up so her chair cluttered against the floor. They held gazes for a few second as Remi mentally begged her to not do what she thougth she was likely to do. “Oh my God, Maria, I have something to tell you.”

As she started to yell, she burst into the run and sprinted out of the room, quickly dodging through the tables and chairs.

“I’m going to die a second time,” she cried out, collapsing into the back of the chair.

Blyke reached forward, taking her hand in his. “You won’t. I’ll make sure of it.”

She stared up at him as his statement his her ears. “How?”

Your just an elite tier.

“I don’t know how but I will,” he answered, keeping his eyes on hers as he spoke. “He won’t ever hurt you again.”

He pulled her hand to his mouth, pressing his lips against the back of her hands, against her knuckles.

If her face hadn’t been red before the heat rushed to her face until her fingertips went icy cold. Blyke’s face grew beetroot red as his eyes rose and met her own face.

“Is my phone in your pocket?”

“What do you mean? What pocket?” she asked, directing her eyes to the side. She doubted she could get any redder than she already was. “The suns fine today.”

“Pardon,” he replied, flinching back. He sat up straighter. “Don’t you mean weather? And aren’t you avoiding my question? It’s in your blazer pocket.”

She continued to look away, watching the teacher enter the classroom, and started humming.

“Hey.” As she wasn’t paying attention, his hand slipped into her blazer pocket and snatched the phone out, tugging the material and attracting her attention. “Why were you-”

His words froze off mid-sentence, staring at his phone as blood drained out of his face and sweat trickled down his jawline. His sharp jawline.

“can I join you tonight?” she asked, realising what he was staring at. Why had she left it on that app? 

Then she can prove Maeve wrong, and find the true answer to the riddle.

“Err,” he hesitated, fitting the phone into his pocket.

Elsie would be mad; maybe she would even quit on him but he had the idea that she also gained something from this. What harm would showing Remi this cause?

“Okay,” he answered, his heart pounding as he turned to writer the date that was on the board down only to discover that it was yesterday’s. 

The day passed before her eyes as the pages of time flicked through the book. Remi waited for Maeve to come back, only to have to question her about the bruises on her thighs. 

Then she was following Blyke along the trainlines, staring out at the twinkling white stars in the dark navy sky. He led her off at a station of a low-tier neighbourhood. They walked through the street bordered by narrow tall houses but there were quite a few people out in the streets. It wasn’t like one that was terrorised, though they were hesitant when they went outside.

She waited for the masks to be pulled out only for him to knock on a warehouse door.

A brunette girl answered, her messy curls falling down her face, as she stared at them with her dark brown eyes that were almost black.

“What? Why?”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> 2054 words
> 
> I may cut back on my uploads for a bit as I work on other works, but I'll probably end up continuing with the schedule (I like posting a lot).
> 
> What do you think Elsie will do? 


	15. Discovery

“What? Why?” the brunette girl cried out, spluttering as she stumbled back. “I know we didn’t talk about it but I thought it was an automatic assumption not to bring others.”

Blyke remained silent at her onslaught and her dark brown eyes glared forth. She crossed her arms over the only place where her light blue hoodie did not hang loosely, and placed the majority of her weight on one leg, leaning on it.

“Hi, you must be Elsie,” Remi greeted, offering her hand out to the girl for a handshake – in an attempt, at least to her, to show her trust. The girl ignored her, barely glancing at her before her eyes flashed back to Blyke with her wrath. “I’m… Remi.”

She trailed off mid-sentence before finishing with the single word. Did Blyke normally hang out with people this rude?

“Seriously,” she snapped, growling through her teeth. “Do you know what you could have done?” Remi flinched back from the anger before the girl turned her attention on her. “So, what do you do?”

“Me.” She gestured to herself, heat rushing to her face as the cogs rotated slowly. Her eyes pierced into her soul.

“Yes, you,” she responded, snarling and turning her back to her. She waked off to the staircase that was against the far wall, but paused in the middle of the room. Her thumping in her ears as Elsie stared at the furniture stacked near the centre pillar holding up the high ceiling. 

“Wait, no!” Blyke yelled. His eyes widened and he reached forward with one hand, attempting to grasp something that was miles away but it was useless.. Her leg kicked at one of the base supports, her black leather scaled boots absorbing the impact to her body, and Blyke blasted off, flying metres forward until he was by her side. 

The sudden spark of red light left by the energy beam blinded Remi’s eyes temporarily as Elsie fell into Blyke’s arms. He lifted her, carrying her to the other end of the warehouse.

Silence followed after the racketing crash of the would be obstacle course. A faint dust smell reached Remi’s nose – like an ancient sawdust that had once lain there.

More blood pumped to Remi’s ears, rushing like a waterfall, as the two remained silent on the other side, hidden from her senses. Lightning sparked through her veins and rose to the surface blasting around her. With a simple kick of her foot, she flew through the air and was carried over the pile with every hop she made across the cliff of boxes.

Soon, she landed on the floor on the other side, the platform of her trains absorbing the impact and muffling the sound.

“What – Why did you do that?” Blyke asked, cried out, as soon as Elsie’s blinked her brown eyes opened in his arms. She pushed herself up to sitting, supporting her own weight as her mind cleared. “We spent so long building that and you just went ahead and destroyed it?! Out of anger? We could have just talked.

“Plus, you didn’t consider your own safety,” he continued to exclaim, leaning back. “You wouldn’t have been able to get out of the way if I wasn’t there.”

“You’re making assumptions,” she replied, bursing her shoulders off as she moved to stand up. “I would have found a way.”

“You would have, right?” Remi questioned. She walked over to where the stood, Blyke having stood up to follow her. “You didn’t even move to activate your ability. In fact, from what I’m gathering, your ability wouldn’t have helped.”

“You don’t know that,” she replied, spitting the words out. Before either could reply, she stood up and walked up the staircase that was on the very back wall to the front door of the warehouse. The metal clanged underneath her boots.

On the second floor, she leant against the thin metal railing as she gazed down at the floor below. Without another word, her dark brown eyes started to glow with a black aura.

Were her eyes actually glowing black? Or did it just look like that? Brown would be a horrible colour to glow.

Electricity was cackling through the walls. Every circuit was apparent before her. Even if she normally could sense the wires in the walls, her range wasn’t that large. Regularly, she could sense electricity a foot or two from her. She definitely shouldn’t be able to tell where all the building and the neighbour’s electrical circuits were, and how much current flowed around them.

“Err,” she said, glancing around to flick between where Blyke stood and the brunette that stood high up on the second floor. “Something’s happened to my ability.”

“Elsie, what did you do?” Blyke questioned, walking up to where Remi stood herself. He glanced back up to where Elsie smirked on her balcony.

She reached forth and tugged onto his finger, pulling him close to her.

“I just boosted her ability,” she replied, sighing and relaxing, leaning further against the railing.

“Okay…” he hesitated, looking at Remi. She stared up at him. Maybe he could do the talking. The ground was spinning beneath her. “I feel like there’s a catch.”

“I may have halved your ability.”

“Okay, is that the catch?” he responded, tilting his head as he looked up at her.

Elsie remained silent, much to the increasing heart rate in his wrist. Her head fell onto his shoulder, and she brought her hands up to his waist.

“The ground’s fuzzy,” she mumbled into his dark grey hoodie.

“What?” He looked up into her dark brown eyes surrounded by the semi-transparent black aura. “Why?”

He brought his hand to her head, combing his finger through her hair. His hand flinched back as soon as he touched her scalp. She was boiling.

“Well, you see,” she started, beginning her pacing with her smugness. “My ability does have it’s limits. Though you didn’t seem to understand that.”

“Just undo it,” Remi spat, pushing her head up from where it laid on her shoulder. Her legs wavered beneath her, wobbling like jelly.

“Why should I ?” she questioned, smiling down. Her arms clenched down and she pushed herself up. The toe of her shoe pushed her up and onto the very top of the edge of the railing.

“Because –” she coughed weakly into her hand – “you don’t want to take it that far. You’re just bitter. Angry.”

“What? And you know me how?” The black aura banished from around her eyes as she continued to tip toe along the railing, holding her arms out like airplane wings to steady her balance.

Her muscles stabilised in her legs and the ground focused benath her.

“Maybe I don’t,” she replied, holding her hand to her chest as she spoke. “But you’re easy to read: you’re angry, you’re hurting. Maybe I’ve just seen it a lot of that recently.”

A tera ran down her cheek as she spoke.

“So?” she questioned. She sprang off the railing, soaring through the air as she leaped, and she landed on the ground with bent knees to absorb the possible blow.

“So maybe we should start over,” she offered, walking over to the girl. The light blue hoodie hung over her slim frame like a mannequins, strands of dark brown hair tumbling down it.

She offered her hand out to her. “I’m Remi. 17. Lightning: 5.4.”

“Blyke,” he continued as he picked up her plan, sceptically glancing at her. “17. Energy Beams: 4.5.”

“Elsie. 15,” she finished, flicking her glares between the two third years standing before her. Then she settled her soul piercing gaze on Blyke. “And you so need to get your level remeasured.”

“What do you mean? And what’s your ability and level?” Remi asked. Did she feel uncomfortable telling it to two higher tiers?

“he,” she pointed at him with one hand, “is definitely not a 4.5. Or even an elite tier.”

“Huh?” she questioned again, her mouth agape.

“It’s more like 5.1. It’s significantly changed since the last time you’ve had it professionally read,” she explained, starting her pacing again only to stop when she finished talking. 

“Oh, I guess that makes sense,” she replied, the possible excitement and frustration vanishing into the well of disappointment.

Blyke’s eyes were staring down at his feet, refusing to meet her gaze when she looked at him. His cheeks were flushed pink. Was this why he met up with this girl? Did he try to get stronger? If he did, he had succeeded.

“What is your ability then?” Blyke asked, brining himself to look up. Elsie glanced away, her expression unreadable.

“I don’t know what it’s called. I grew up with one parent, but inherited my ability from the other. I’ve never known what it’s actually called, but I’ve always called it ‘Switch’. It kind of works like that. As for my level: 2.7.”

“I’m surprised it’s so low,” she replied. Usually, she found that mid-tiers only had one aspect to their ability whilst higher tiers had several. Elsie had several, though they were weak. 

“Haha, you’re not the first to say that,” she said, fiddling with a strand of hair. 

“Oh, do you do this regularly?” she asked, walking up to the girl. At this close, she had to severely look down to reach her eyes, though not enough to hurt her neck. But the brunette’s eyes were locked on her own black leather boots.

“I am asked often to help people increase their ability. For you see, repeated use of the booster part of my ability can rapidly increase one’s level,” she explained, pressing the tips of her fingers together. 

She paused before her next words came. Before her eyes flashed a memory of a low-tier cowering against a wall, pulling his legs to his chest as he sat against the wall, below the mid-tier. Even as a mid-tier, she probably had no defence against others, even those that were below her own level but had a more physical ability. She would have had to follow what they said to avoid them harming her, or other threats.

“Do you benefit from it?” she asked, concern filling her voice.

After a pause in which Elsie purposefully took long blinks., her nose screwed up and she flinched back. “Yes, of course. It increases my level as well after a while.”

“You didn’t tell me that!” Blyke replied, half-shouting. Both girls looked at him in the silence.

“Why would I do that without my own interest?” she questioned, placing her hands on her hips. “Seriously, I’m not that selfless.”

Blyke laughed, clutching his arms around his stomach, before his eyes met Remi’s own bright red. He slowly silenced himself.

“I should have thought it through.”

The room settled into silence at they both looked at Elsie to continue speaking. Elsie, however, stared up towards the sky.

“Are you going to do anything?” she asked, brining her eyeline back down ot them. She stared blankly at them as if she expected them to do something. “You are going to train, right?”

“Oh,” she said. “Ohh. You want us to fight.”

“Well, how else re you supposed to train?” she questioned, moving her arms to cross over her chest.

“I guess,” she replied. Turning to Blyke, she smiled.

Lightning sparkled around her as she reached her hand out. His eyes widened as her hand almost brushed against his collarbone before a red beam quickly charged up, pushing him back across the room until he crashed into the pile of books.

In a rush, he pushed with his arms up to a messy standing. He glanced back to her as she boosted herself forward. Before he could react, her hands rested on his shouldrs.

The lightning flowed from her hands into his body and it sparkled through his skin. He flinched away from her touch, falling back onto the boxes.

With another beam, he forced himself to the other side of the room, collapsing onto the floor.

She spun to the direction he headed in. He was standing up, brushing down his joggers, and it smeared strands of red throughout. He pointed his hand to her to charge a beam. The skin was grazed but it quickly clotted up.

So he had a faster healing rate now.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> 2055 words.
> 
> I may not post on Mondays for the next few weeks as I write a few chapters for Narcissist after months of not writing. However, that might not be this week as I would need to reread it to make sure I'm not inconsistent. 
> 
> Thoughts on Elsie's actions?


	16. Rise Up

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Typically I try to keep a scene to one point of view, but this chapter not only has thoughts from multiple characters without a scene break to separate them but it is a flashback from no one in particular's point of view. 

Kuyo stood next to Lillian and Rei stood opposite them, his fists hidden in the pockets of his teal blazer.

His eyes focused on Lillian’s straight silver hair, falling to her collarbone. Her soft nose rounded in the centre of her face, small and blush. Her blue eyes stood like diamond’s in her face. Her appearance was of a Queen, like her ability of ice. She deserved to be Queen.

Unlike, who stood with his eyebrows knitted together and his recent title of King at the defeat of the old one. His face frowned; his fist undoubtedly clenched in his pockets.

We need to do this,” Rei stated, removing his hand out of his pocket flat and gesturing to the grounds around the courtyard. “I know many won’t like it at first, but it would defeat so many issues. Just think, for a first, there would be less out of control students. Especially ones with a following.”

Kuyo held back a snort. He was certain that Rei was referring to their first year. He hadn’t been out of the Royals control though. They had supported him; only he hadn’t.

“But the hierarchy works,” she replied, standing with her arms crossed over her petite bust as she leant on the wall. The school stood before her. “That’s why we use it. 

“Imagine what would happened if we removed it,” she continued, “Chaos. Absolute chaos. No one would know where they belonged. No one would listen to us.”

“Then we could use democracy,” he suggested, reaching forward to her hand. Taking her wrist, he held it in both of his hands as he begged. “It would be an overall decision. Who would reject that?”

“Since when we low- or mid-tiers good at making decisions. They don’t think that far ahead in their future or others’,” she cried out, snatching her wrist back.

Ever since that day in First-Year that he and Rei had fought. Rei had always been more powerful than him, even when his level had been below his at fist. Maybe it was a faint stroke of luck that his level had increased at that moment, but whatever he had done had sparked his hatred.

Whenever he could, he attempted to fight him. In the hallway before classes, during classes if the teacher allowed it. Whatever he could to put him in his place. It had either on e of them winning until third-year.

That was the year when it all changed. Suddenly, Rei was winning the majority of the fights if not all of them. And it wasn’t only their fights either. All that opposed him lay on the ground at his feet.

But Rei would offer his hand out to them afterward. He would smile once congratulate them on their improvements. 

He boiled at his pity.

Now he stood at 5.6 and the strongest in the school; one of only two high-tiers – the other Lillian herself.

Lillian was 5.1, like his parents. Shouldn’t he be stronger than Rei then? Rei had admitted to him in the fist few weeks of first-year that his parents were only elite tiers. And now he was still an elite tier!

How could rei not see it? Low-tiers walked over him with the lax grip he granted them. If he didn’t do something, they would overrun the school with their ill-fated self-confidence.

Suddenly, his eyes snapped out of the clouds of his thoughts whilst the King and Queen still argued in the background.

A honey blonde girl, with messy waves entangled like fell to her upper back, walked up to them with her head held high.

The school’s navy skirt flared out from her waist to mid-thigh and the white stockings covered her smooth legs from her thighs to her feet, navy flats on her feet. Her white blouse was untucked and sticking out under her dark grey vest. The collar covered part of the vest and the navy ribbon was tied through the collar and tied into a loose bow

As she walked up, the courtyard slowly radiated into silence, their eyes caught on her. Soon enough, the argument broke off mid-sentence as Rei glanced to her.

“Isn’t she a low-tier? Why is she walking up to the Royals? Especially like that?” he picked out one of the voices by accident. This why you put low-tiers in the place.

“No, she’s a mid-tier. I mean, just barely but she is,” one of the initial voice’s friend corrected.

“But she took down Lola early today,” another voice stated. Lola. He had seen her have to head to the infirmary early that day covered in patchy burns. At 3.9, he thought she pissed off another elite-tier, or maybe even Lillian if your assumed the burns were ice burns.

“What do you want?” asked Lillian once she was within a few metres of them.

The girl smiled, tugging on her sleeve. She didn’t wear the school’s blazer, which could easily be restricting for her shape with rather wide shoulders for a girl.

“I came here to challenge you.”

An eery silence bursted into the world around them as Lillian’s icy blue stared at her. Slowly, a laugh busted out of her lips.

“You –” she paused for a breath. “You are challenging me?”

“Yes, isn’t that how it works?” she questioned, stepping forward to close the gap further between them. Her burning gold eyes glimmered. 

“Yeah, but you’re a low-tier. Why would you are to talk to me let alone challenge me to a fight? For my title? So, sorry, but no,” she replied, rejecting her command.

A shocked silence settled over the students gathered. Whispers slowly rustled about.

“Pardon?” she replied, staring at her with a fallen face. Her skin paled in palette.

Kuyo smirked as the girl stared forth. Lillian was Queen for a reason; she was the strongest girl tin the school, even if she was leaving at the end of the year. She was able to keep Rei under control, so how would she be defeated b a simple mid-tier? She just got to high headed.

“Are you a coward?” yelled out a voice across the courtyard. There was enough students gathered in a ring around the courtyard that he couldn’t pinpoint him.

“No, I guess not,” she said, taking a step forward.

Her eyes glowed and she faced her palm at her, ice shooting forward. The blonde dodged to the side; incredible speeds reached as she suddenly appeared behind her.

She didn’t even activate her ability.

Hot breath hit Lillian’s neck and she flinched forward, stumbling onto one leg. Her flying foot pushed off the concrete with the ball of her foot, spinning her around.

Rei and Kuyo quickly ran away from the two, avoiding the two’s fight.

Water droplets that was in her outward breath froze into icicles, forming an icy mist. It bursted forth through the whistling air and aimed at her face.

A claw blocked the icicle, breaking into pieces that fell like hail as fire bursted across the ochre claws.

Lillian dodged to the side as the claw stabbed forward. Her temporary smirk fell as the blonde vanished out of sight.

“You need to improve on your fighting style,” she commented, smiling as ice formed a covering over the slabs underneath her feet. It slowly grew in height as it rushed towards where she spotted the honey blonde head, curving as she ran.

She braked her run, digging her ankles into the ground, and was facing her as she braked. The flames were pushed down to the ice, melting in a matter of seconds. The water formed into puddles.

The next ice spark that was flung her way melted instantly within a foot of her.

Lillian’s quick breathing huffed out of her airway, passing through a small hole that formed between her lips. Sweat beaded on her brow as she stepped into a stance in preparation. 

The blonde leaped forward, her legs crouching before the jump, and stretched her hand her hand forward, slashing the other girl across her chest. She landed on the ground just beyond the puddle, bending her knees as hse turned to face her again.

The silver haired girl stood agape, staring down at the burnt tear across her vest. Pale slivers of skin were revealed across her chest.

Kuyo’s eyes locked on to her chest as his face heated up. He glanced at Rei, who was pink in the face but he trained his eyes on the girl’s interaction, his face furrowed in concentration.

Lillian’s arms had moved to cover her chest, attempting to freeze a thin layer of water vapour around her as a shield. 

The other girl sprinted to the direction she faced, running through the splashing puddles, and elbowed the shield. It cracked under the harsh force, shattering after a second blow.

A tear ran down her cheek, desperately staring at her with her large eyes. Her cheeks glimmered with glittering light.

The honey blonde smirked, licking her lips like she was lasting blood, and deactivated her ability. A sigh left her moth as the muscles in Lillian’s body relaxed, only to be followed by a quick intake of breath.

With both hands, her hands reached forward and gripped her shoulders. Blood dripped out of her face as it slowly became a shade of white. Her palms shoved her forward.

Lillian placed her hand out to break her fall as the air whistled pass her, flinging her hair up. She hit the ground, flinching and closing her eyes.

Mary stepped further forward, much to the widening fear in his eyes. She took the toe of her shoe, pulling her entire calf back, and aimed it to the other girl’s leg.

In a heartbeat of no thought, Rei leaped forward. Lightning charged around him, boosting him further, as he reached to her. His arms wrapped around her waist, pulling her close to his body to grip her, and jumped away from the body.

“Let go of me!” she shouted, attempting to wiggle her arms free to where they were pinned to her waist. His ribs were tapped by her elbow as she tried to elbow him with no power behind the failed blow.

“No, you need to calm,” he replied, speaking next to her ear. Her foot contacted his calf as she attempted to kick him.

This was why the hierarchy did not work, a reason why. The reason why they said she was a low/ mid-tier was that she had been as early as a few days ago. A late bloomer. He had heard of them but never thought he would meet one, let alone meet one in this way. Let alone stop a fight they had started.

Pain stabbed through his thigh. Her claw was resummoned, long stabbing thick needs that were scarred with burns. It pierced into his leg, but then she pulled her arm back up.

“Gah!”

He stumbled back, realising his grip. She took a few steps forward before returning forward. The messy honey blonde spun around her face as she turned.

Her face fell, her gold eyes glimmering with the start of tears.

“Hail the New Queen!”

Later, he laid on the bed in the infirmary with Lillian lying unconscious on the bed next to him. Sleeping.

The nurse, a lady in her late fifties, walked around the infirmary, moving items about in necessity.

The door clicked open, blonde strands peeking through the crack.

“Mary, what did you do?” asked the nurse, glancing at the blonde who walked in the room.

The girl didn’t reply, eyes locked to the floor, and instead walked to where Rei laid. A light red hint covered her cheeks as she refused to meet her eyes.

“Your name’s Mary, right?” he asked, shuffling himself up to sitting as he talked to her.

“Yes,” she answered, still refusing to look him in the eyes. “Sorry.”

Her voice whispered as she apologised.

“It’s alright. It would be the right reaction in a different situation,” he said. He knew it was right.

“Well then,” she replied, glancing up to his eyes. She flashed a smile. “I’ll look forward to our partnership.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> 2030 words.
> 
> So, on the last chapter, I said I might not post on this story on Monday/Tuesday as I start up Narcissist again, but I'm going to stop posting on a Monday/Tuesday for a different reason for a little while as I work on different projects.
> 
> Who is Mary truly?


	17. The Article

Maeve’s eyes blinked open, a hot flush decorating her cheeks.

_His hand traced her upper thigh, his other hand pinning her wrists to the pillow. Her shirt was somewhere across the room along with her bra. His hand brushed against her._

Her hand slammed onto her alarm clock and she rubbed her eyes awake. She slid off the bed and changed into her school uniform, deciding not to wear the school vest.

Taking a step out of the room, she flung her forest green hair over her shoulder as she entered the kitchen. Immediately, her eyes moved to the bowls only to realise they were only in the dishwasher. When she discovered the dishwasher contained dirty dishes, she glanced to the clock.

Remi was not up. Over the past few days, Remi always got up before her. In fact, her morning routine headed her to be up earlier.

Walking up to the door, she knocked and said, “Hey, err, you’re normally up by this time.”

There was no response. Silence remained.

Did Remi return last night? She was heading out with Blyke when she came back from John’s room, but she clearly had time to question her about some bruises. Some bruises. She didn’t know why her healing rate hadn’t taken care of the ‘injuries’ but Remi didn’t know about her healing factor so had no reason to question it that much.

She held the cold metal door knob in her hand and it clicked open.

Beams of light streamed through the curtain into the dark abyss of the room. Shadows filled the room, highlighting the form of two people under the duvet o the bed.

“Okay,” she responded, turning away and leaving the door hanging open.

Maybe she could remember which bowl she used yesterday.

Opening up the dishwasher, a hopeless feeling settled in her heart. Maybe she should use another eating utensil for cereal today.

There was a knock at the door and she moved over to answer it. Pulling it back, Isen stood behind it.

“Hi, your Remi’s friend, right?” she greeted, stepping back to tell him in.

“We’ve talked for several days. I’m basically your friend too,” he replied, quickly glancing around the dorm. “Isn’t Remi normally up by this time?”

“Yes,” she responded, starting to walk to where Remi’s room was. “Anyway, I asked because Remi’s claiming she and Blyke aren’t dating, but she’s jealous over interaction with other girls, and They’re Sleeping In The Same Fucking Bed.”

“Wait, Blyke’s here?” he questioned, following her to where she stood.

“Yes,” she grunted in reply. She crossed her arms over her chest. “I think they went out together last night.”

“Went out together?” he asked, looking up at her in shock.

“Well, yeah,” she answered, deciding to walk back to the kitchen. She spotted the bread on the countertop, which she had brought the other day, and pulled a plate out of one of the cupboards. “They headed out together and came home together apparently.”

“Do you know when they came home last night?” he asked, following her to where she clicked the bread in the toaster. “And have you not eaten yet?”

“I have not eaten yet because they got back at a time too late to turn on the dishwasher,” she replied, hissing in annoyance.

“Maeve, be more quiet,” Remi whispered, stepping not the kitchen. Her pjamers legs, covered in a blue and grey criss-cross pattern, hung loosely around her calves and she rubbed the sleep out of her eyes. “Hi, Isen. Maeve, why did you leave my door open? And why did you open my door in the first place? Also, can I have some of that toast too?”

“Remi, do you know when Blyke is?” Isen asked, receiving a glare from Maeve.

“OH, he’s still in bed,” she replied, walking up to where Maeve stood.

“So you two are dating<” maeve said, pointing to her with the blunt knife she had gained. She smiled at her, but the pinkette frowned back.

“No, why do you keep thinking that?” she answered, moving her hair behind her ear. Strands were falling in her face without the ribbon holding their back.

“Err, Remi.”

“Not only where you going through his texts yesterday and asking me about his texts, very plain texts by the way, with another girl,” she explained, spreading the butter over the toast. “But you just shared a bed together.”

“Wait, you shared my texts with Maeve,” asked Blyke as he walked into the room himself.

“Yes, she did,” Maeve replied, taking a bite out of the toast.

“I wanted a second opinion,” she answered, staring longingly at the toast in the greenette’s hand. “I don’t think Maeve was a good choice though.”

“Pardon?” responded Maeve without pause, temporarily choking on her toast. “Is it because I thought you were dating? Many would have assumed the same.”

“Right.” She glanced away from her. “Anyway, I’m missing first period. I’m going back to sleep. Bye.”

She headed back to her room, quickly followed by Blyke.

“So do you want to head to class together?” she asked, smiling up at him as she placed the plate on the countertop.

“Yes, I doubt I wold be able to convince both of them to actually go to first period,” he replied, glancing across the room at her. “Aren’t you going to put the dishwasher on?”

“I don’t know where Remi keep the tablets for it,” she replied before she headed off to the bathroom.

Then they walked through the crowd. Maeve sticked to his side with a large smile.

Entering the classroom, he sat down at the desk and she sat on it, placing her hands on one side of her hips on the tables. She smiled down at him, causing red to spread across his face.

“So Maeve, I know we have arrived in class early but what are you doing?” he questioned, leaning back as looked up at her.

“Sitting?” she answered, her voice wavering in a question. She swung her legs around to face him.

“Well, anyway. What’s your ability?” he asked, smiling at her with a confidence. “I mean, you hair colour and texture change so often along with the length that it must be something like shapeshifting.”

“Oh, it’s Form Manipulation,” she replied, continuing to smile and say like it was no big deal.

“Really?” he asked, faining interest that she fell for. “What does it do? Why didn’t you tell the class about your ability?”

“Oh, as you said it’s basically shapeshifting but it includes a few other things that most don’t include under shapeshifting,” she explained, continuing to smile at his words. “And I didn’t say because the school I attended before here had had a previous problem with a high tier and I didn’t like the attention it gave me. I didn’t have the confidence to tell everyone at the beginning but it has caused more harm than good.”

“I guess Arlo didn’t take it kindly,” he replied.

“He’s an asshole,” she said glancing to the side and screwing up her nose. “He should have respected his place.”

“He’s basically the King,” he explained.

“No, he was dethroned,” she retorted, not allowing a breath to be taken. They were whispering it everywhere yesterday. “John’s the King now.”

Isen broke down into a cough, thumping his chest as he bent forward.

“Are you okay?” she asked, sliding off the desk and moving to his side.

“What? How do you know that?” he questioned after the coughing fit died down. He stared up at her with shocked wide eyes.

“He’s the King. Why wouldn’t I know that?” she asked, her voice undyingly innocent.

“Because he dethroned Arlo with a mask on,” he told her, creating a gasp out of her. “And he has not taken the mask off to the majority of the student body. Either Remi has been talking without a filter or you’ve been talking with John.”

“He wore a mask?” she exclaimed, seemingly slightly jumping in the air.

“Yes, he did,” he replied, glancing to the side into a non-existent camera. “And judging from your reaction, you’ve talked to him. You should stop though: he’s dangerous.”

She remained silent. Why did he say? Why would he wear a mask? Why does it matter?

“Any how do you know this?” she questioned, her eyes covered in shadow that were formed by her long wavy bangs. Her fists were clenched at her side.

“I’m the head of the newspaper. What would I be if I didn’t know all the news in the school? Even if everyone else doesn’t know,” he replied, leaning back with a lax smile.

“Then why did he wear a mask?” she asked, glancing up to reveal tears streaming down her cheek.

“Oh he pretended to be a cripple,” he said.

Maeve stormed out the room, not taking a moment to see another student just enter the room as she left, almost slamming her fingers in the door.

Navigating the corridors, she quickly went up the stairs until she reached the top floors. The windows, revealing the light blue sky with white fluffy clouds, passed her as she walked and she found the door from a tour Remi eventually took her on.

She walked up the final set of stairs, slimmer than the rest, and she opened the door to the flat roof bordered by a chain metal fence.

Leaning against the fence, she scrolled through her phone.

Why did she expect John to be here? They didn’t even communicate this time. There was no reason for him to be here.

The door clicked open again and she glanced up. John was there.

“Hello, didn’t know you would be up here?” John greeted, walking over and sitting down next to her.

“I didn’t know either,” she replied, placing her in the side pocket of her blazer, the opposite side to where John sat, and turned to face him directly. “Why did you dethrone Arlo wearing a mask?”

“What? Who told you that?” he exclaimed, jumping back in shock.

“Isen did,” she replied, “but why did you do that? that would be a coward’s choice.”

“I’m a monster, Maeve. I think you know that,” he answered, resting his arm on his knee as he leant against the fence.

Quiet rested between them, him waiting for a reaction, before he continued, “I hid my ability when I joined Welston – as a cripple – because I didn’t want people to find out and tried to get me to ‘join’ his pathetic ‘hierachy’, like he did with you, but he did it much more privately. I won, obviously, and my friend, Sera, lost her ability. I asked Arlo to help protect her from the hierarchy he had set up. I did what I had to do.”

He shrugged it off.

“And that involved wearing a mask?”

“Yes,” he answered, “I didn’t want the school to find out after so long.”

She opened her mouth to speak, but then took a pause to think.

“This wasn’t our agreement,” she stated, holding herself back from reaching out to him.

“What do you mean ‘it wasn’t’?” he asked her, staring at her. “You are the Queen. You only need to tell the other students that.”

“Revealing it now would be necessary. It’s better late than never,” she told him, standing up. “If you don’t, they’ll find out anyway.”

She walked away and back to her class, arriving only slightly late. In a flash, lunch period was before her. Walking around the halls, eyes and whispers followed her. Many held a sheet of paper in their hands – an article.

One floated down to the floor, swinging through the air as it fell. She picked it up.

_The New Girl_   
_Many have heard of the new girl in 3A by now. Initially, word spread throughout the corridors with the news of the first new student this school year for the third-years and then as she refused to admit what her ability or level was. However, the rumours that she could be another cripple were immediately taken down by herself._   
_Maeve Williams joined Wellston in --/--/---- and has since admitted her ability, even with her initially reluctance. At 5.1, form manipulation allows her to shapeshift, along with other elements that one would not normally associate with the title shapeshifting…_

Then crumpled it up in her fist.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> 2070 words.
> 
> I just made up Maeve's surname.
> 
> I've just realised that ao3 does not allow italics (at least not from copy and paste). A few of the chapters so far have contained italics for flashbacks. I've fixed it now, but the italics change the meaning of a scene in an earlier chapter. 
> 
> I'll post the next chapter on Friday next week.


	18. How Could You?

Isen’s eyes followed Maeve leaving in a rage quit. He didn’t get it. He had simply told her the truth and she just became a volcano to him.

Sighing, he fell into the teacher’s lecture and swam in his thoughts.

Personally, Maeve was attractive, but Arlo had ordered him to write the article. There wasn’t anyone else he would trust with this article other than himself. They would just mess it up.

Luckily then, Maeve had been more open than she had been with anyone else. She didn’t know that she had just ruined her own plan.

Of course, there was a few details he would have to make up, but Arlo had ordered it to be out by this week’s newspaper. If there were any wrong details, knowing the greenette, she would immediately correct them to the truth without thinking her words through. At least some would be credible.

The last line ended, and he read through it, checking the grammar. This was why the Head of the Newspaper didn’t usually write articles for the newspaper, they wouldn’t notice mistakes in their own writing.

“Isen?” asked a voice as another student entered the room.

Remi walked in and came up to the desk. “What are you writing?”

“Just an article Arlo asked me to write,” he replied, tapping off the document page.

“Oh, does he do that a lot?” she asked, looking over his shoulder at the screen.

“Not as much as he used to before he made me the Head of the Newspaper, he replied. “How was last night?”

“It… was odd,” she started, glancing to the side to remember it. “I didn’t expect it out of Blyke. He wasn’t a vigilante, at least not anymore. He was meeting a girl who could increase his level quickly.”

“Wait, seriously?” he asked, staring up at her with wide orange eyes. “I mean, I said at what one point that vigilantes levels must climb quickly, but I didn’t realise he would take it that way.”

“Oh God,” she mumbled into her hand that she brought up to cover her mouth. “I’m glad Elsie found him then.”

“I’m sorry for even mentioning it to him,” he said, glancing down at the floor. “Anyway, you shared a bed last night?”

“Yeah, but I don’t get why Maeve made such a big deal about it,” she answered. “We arrived back very late and we didn’t want to bother with the possibility of Keene.”

“I guess that makes sense but couldn’t one of you have taken the sofa?”

“Maeve would have freaked out in the morning.”

“She freaked out anyway.”

“Anyway,” she said, sighing as they changed topics and the tension vanished from her back. “How was Maeve this morning?”

“Very chatty,” he answered, “She actually told me her ability: form manipulation.”

“Like becoming permeable or whatever it would be called,” she stated, “because that would make sense.”

“I guess so. She also confirmed she was a high tier.”

She nodded. “She definitely does seem to have a passive.”

“Well, yeah. She changes her hair colour with her ability and its stays when she de activities her ability. And she seemed to heal awfully fast in her fight with Arlo yesterday,” he replied, glancing at her to hold eye contact before continuing, “She knows John.”

“What?” Remi exclaimed, jumping back from when she leant against the desk. “I wasn’t aware they knew each other existed.”

“She knew John is the King,” he explained as she turned back to pay key attention to him. “And she knew nothing of Joker. In fact, I doubt she knows who the other Royals are.”

“Oh, so they’ve talked,” she said. “She has vanished to random places at points. I never really thought tot ask her where she went.”

The door banged open and Blyke entered the room. He held a plate of food in his hand and was eating one of the pieces of fruit.

“You’re hungry,” Remi commented as he came to stand next to them.

“I’m growing.” He casually shrugged it off. “How’s the newspaper? Is Arlo still giving you problems?”

“He wanted me to write an article on Maeve,” he replied, staring back at the computer screen. “Can one of you check the grammar?”

Remi looked over his shoulder and read throughout it. “It looks fine to me.”

“Thanks,” he responded, adding it to the publication. Then he sent it to the Printer, Max. “So, how was last night?”

“Whatever Maeve said, she was wrong,” he instantly said.

“Well, good thing she didn’t say a statement then. Just questions,” he answered. “So, you met up with a girl?”

“Wait, did you tell him?” he asked Remi, turning to her.

“Was I not supposed to?” she questioned, staring up at him with wide eyes.

He reached forward and threaded his fingers in her own.

“No. No, it’s fine.”

“Okay,” she replied, a hot flush to her cheeks. She brought a hand to her mouth and her body shook doe a few seconds like she was lightly laughing.

“So, who was she?” Isen asked after a few beats of silence.

“She was around a second-year mid-tier whose ability boosted and did other things to abilities,” Remi explained, turning from Blyke to include Isen in the conversation. “Her family owned the warehouse she met us in, which would be why she was in a low-tier district. It would be cheap land.”

“The warehouse was abandoned,” Blyke interjected. Remi glanced back at him in confusion.

“Didn’t really look abandoned,” she replied. “I assumed she had access to it as her family owned it.”

“Mid-tiers don’t normally own warehouse. Or businesses,” Isen commented.

“Just because she is a mid-tier doesn’t mean her family is. She struck me as coming from a family higher up the hierarchy,” she explained. “Guh, the hierarchy. She suggested that if she put the effort in, she could easily reach elite tier if not, higher. And she seemed to have skills that one would have to be taught to know.”

“Wait, when was that?” Blyke asked, shock radiating in his voice.

“Blyke,” she said, sincerely smiling at him. “Not only did she walk along a railing about 2cm thick, which was also slippery and curved, but she jumped down about 10 foot without hesitation.”

“Oh, I’ve seen people do that without training,” he responded.

“And that’s why we call them God-tiers.”

Blyke remained silent as Remi reached forward only to stop and draw her hand back.

“I’m starting to see what Maeve was talking about.”

“What? What did she say?” she shouted, jumping back and then forward, boosted by a lightning spark. Her hands slammed against the desk. 

“You already know though,” he replied, staring forward at the two.

“How could you?” shouted a voice. The air shimmered next to Blyke and a girl’s formed appeared. Lilac hair flowed over her shoulders and down her back to the centre of her back. Glowing with a pinkish hue, it puffed out, fluffing up unlike most others’ hair. 

Her white sleeves puffed out like bells around her shoulders, the blazer having vanished before she even turned up. Her skirt flared out around her to her mid-thigh.

Her eyes glowed with a violet aura.

“Oh, you’re earlier than I expected,” Isen said. He had to deflect her attention away from Remi and Blyke. He hadn’t planned for them to be here if she did come. “What do you want?”

“What do I want?” Maeve responded, dark anger dripping from her words as she repeated the words over her tongue. “I think you already know why I’m here. You’re the Head of the Newspaper, right?”

“Yes,” he said, wearily replying. What was she planning?

“Then how could you publish that?” she asked, walking up to the desk with her fists clenched at her sides. “You knew I didn’t want anyone to know without my permission. How did they even know that stuff?”

Isen held back a sigh as his mind relaxed in relief that she didn’t realise it. Then guilt flooded in. She trusted him.

“And how did they get so much correct and yet so much wrong,” she exclaimed, holding her hand to her forehead in confusion whilst she screeched with anger. She hadn’t even realised that all the correct information on the article was the information she had told him. Maybe he had managed to guess another fact correctly. At least, that meant she hadn’t put two and two together.

“And how could they get my level so wrong!” She slammed her hand to her desk at the end of her sentence in emphasis. “Seriously, 5.1. Do you not have them check their work with pure logic? If you even had checked their work, you should have been to know that was wrong.”

“Look, Maeve-.” Remi took a step forward from where she stood with Blyke and reached one of her hand’s towards the other girl with a slight hesitation as it crept nearer to her.

“Shut up!” she shouted before he could get another word out. Her eyes were bloodshot; her cheeks soaked with tears. “This is mine and Isen’s issue alone. In fact, you may as well leave.”

She sniffed loudly as she turned away, no tissue close on hand, and pretended she wasn’t there. Remi didn’t leave though.

“Why did you allow this to happen?” she eventually asked, her voice barely audible to him.

His heart thundered in his ear as she took steps around the desk to take a stand closer to him. He needed to shut that window down – NOW! She was going to kill him if she saw it.

His mind raced for an answer to the desperate problem. He needed one thirty seconds ago, but he didn’t.

In the last second, he zoomed forward and clicked the screen’s on/off button off.

“Isen, please answer me,” she begged, tears streaming down her cheeks as she took the few final steps forward. “Please explain why.”

Her eyes – pretty glowing violet eyes that shimmered in the tears – flicked between him and the computer’s screen he had just turned off. “Why did you turn this off before I could see it?”

He remained silent as her eyes rested heavy on him. Her light pink lips pouted, begging to be kissed.

Fear widened his eyes when her hand reached toward the lower right corner of the screen. His blood froze in clumps in his veins, blanching his face as her fingers ran down it, searching the buttons through touch. After a few seconds, where his heart flickered, loudly thumping in his ears, before it clicked under her fingers.

In an intake of breath, her eyes scanned over the words and then her breathing increased in pace. Another tear rolled down her cheek and feel down onto the desk.

His heart sunk.

“This is… This is the article,” she whispered, her words vibrating throughout the room. A pin could be dropped and be heard in the corridor outside, but her words were still louder to them.

“How could you?” she shouted, stepping back to face him. Her hand wheeled around and sliced across his cheek.

“Ow.” He brought his hand up to his stinging cheek and brought it back with smeared blood.

Looking at where her hand hovered in the air at the height of her waist, the little finger had taken the form of a rectangular blade. The outer edge was razor sharp to a pinpoint, dripping with his blood.

“Calm down,” Remi said, running over to them. She gripped Maeve’s waist from behind, holding her back from going further.

“Let go of me!” she yelled, wiggling against her grip. Her arms were pinned to her sides, her hands unable to do anything.

“No, you need to calm down,” Remi replied, keeping her grip fixed on her. “There’s an explanation to all of this.”

Her ankle connected with her calf, causing her to stumble back, and her grip loosened. Maeve’s body vanished into the semi-transparent and her feet fully connected with the ground. She ran away, a tear flying through the air behind her, and went through the desk and door.

“You knew she would react like that. Why would you do that to her then?” she questioned, turning to face him. “You probably need to go to Doc. You don’t know how deep that cut is.”

After a moment of waiting for a reply, she walked out of the room without either following.

Maeve curled up on the toilet seat and hugged her knees to her chest. Her eyes were red and puffy as her vision blurred in front of her.

How could he? Didn’t he know what he meant to her? 

A sharp intake of breath passed over her lisp as the door to the girl’s bathroom. Why did someone have to enter now?

“Maeve, are you there?” Remi knocked on the door and she whimpred in reply. “Let me in.”

Sighing, her hand stretched out and the lock clicked open. It swung open to reveal Remi and she stepped in.

“You have a crush on him, don’t you?” she asked, leaning against the thin wall of the cubicle so she stood in front of her. Maeve stared at her, the tears suddenly stopping with shock.

“How did you know?”

“You didn’t overly seem to be angry at the information being leaked but more that Isen allowed it to happen. You were angry because you trusted him. He didn’t realise the truth you placed in him.”

Maeve nodded in response, her voice not looking in her throat.

“Your hair changed. Is that your natural colour?”

“I know.” 

They remained silent as Maeve’s sight locked on her feet, now hanging off the edge of the shut toilet. She hadn’t answered the question properly. Her heart thumped in her chest.

And she needed to ask. John had already lied -what else had he lied about? She didn’t want to be made a fool again. Especially not with this.

“Who’s the Queen?”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> 2335 words.
> 
> I feel like unOrdinary is picking up again in pace and excitement, and the character arcs are finally coming to light. I feel like Arlo's character arc is reversing though. 


	19. Queen

“Who’s the Queen?”

In a spark of confidence, she looked up to Remi’s eyes, widened in shock along with her agape mouth. Immediately, she glanced away with a heat rushing to her cheeks.

“Sorry. I know that was out of place.”

“Don’t worry. I’d guess you’d want to know, though our Royals are all over the place right now,” she answered, reaching forward and holding the tips of her hands in her own. “I’m the Queen. If you can call me that anymore.”

“Huh, you’re the Queen?” she responded, shock reverberating in her voice. She jerked back and stared up in shock. “I didn’t realise. But why would you say that? What happened?”

“I lost a fight,” she explained, twirling a strand of light pink hair around her index finger. “He was a guy so I didn’t lose my title, but the King lost his title in the same fight, so I also lost my position. No one really known what’s what since then.”

“John, right?” she asked. Would it hurt her? What if she got it wrong?

“How did you know?” she questioned. “I don’t think we’ve ever talked about him.”

“Isen told me this morning,” she said, “Whilst I told him everything about me. Well, I didn’t tell him the school I attended before here was New Bostin High School. Maybe he would have gotten closer to my actual ability level then.”

“You went to New Bostin?” questioned Remi, staring at her with a twinkle in her wide eyes.

“Yes, did you?” she asked back. “Wait. No, that’s a stupid question. Of course not. It’s hours away from here and I would have recognised you anyway.”

She brushed her fingertips against her temple and harshly sighed in exasperation, causing a giggle from Remi.

“No, I was just shocked,” she explained, glancing down and fiddling with her fingers. “I know, John attended there before here.”

“Oh, are you asking if I knew him? ‘Cause I did,” she replied, an eager smile on her lips. “Well, I didn’t know him; I knew of him. Though, everyone knows of the King. Especially one like John.”

“Oh, what was he like?”

“Violent, I guess. I don’t know why others always compared me to him just because I hated the main person who stood against him. She was a bitch. Who turns on a friend who they used to climb to the top of the hierarchy theoretically after they had quickly risen themselves as well and only known others bullying them for doing the only thing they had ever known higher tiers to do? And drag other people along with her? It really shows how selfish humans can be.”

“She did that? Are you saying he was expelled for defending himself?”

“No, his defence turned into offence. He wasn’t forced into the fight, so no one really saw it as self-defence. Though, he was actually expelled for attempting to resist the authorities.”

“Seriously? It wasn’t for brutalising his classmates?”

“We’d liked to pretend he was.”

“So, did you agree with him? Or was it something else?” Remi asked.

“No, though I’m not sure John had exact beliefs back then,” she replied. “As mentioned, I hated the girl who stood up to him. She dragged me out to the incident when I was a first-year ‘cause I was already an elite-tier. I was the strongest first-year at the time. Actually, I was the strongest in the school when I left.”

“Oh, that must have been horrible. Being forced to do something that could get you hospitalised. I’m surprised anyone agreed to it.”

“Most weren’t forced,” she explained, fiddling with the end of her skirt. “They were willing. She convinced them that they would succeed, even that actually having multiple people fight him at once increases your chances of losing to him. But I ran away before then. And my reputation went down the drain with that decision.”

“Oh,” she responded, glancing to the side as her mind worked. “Wait, having multiple people vs 1 is a way to fail against him?”

“Well, I think there is a limit, but that would be a bunch of the top of the God-tiers,” she said. “I mean, that’s the case with any God-tier.”

“Yeah, their like a one person.”

“Thank you,” she replied, standing up. Stepping forward, she hugged her, wrapping her arms around her waist. Remi responded the hug.

“Don’t worry. I’m just being a good friend.” She stepped back and Remi smiled at her.

Maeve let her body relax before taking a deep breath of anticipation. She had to do this. She had to ask.

“Remi, I would like to challenge you for the position of Queen,” she asked, meeting her eyes after a few seconds of staring at the damp light grey tiled floor.

“Why are you asking so formally,” she questioned in response after a moment of silence.

“It just felt appropriate,” she answered, nervously holding her arm. “With the uncertainty of whether you are still Queen or not, wouldn’t it be good to have a fight with a known high-tier to know who truly is the Queen?”

“Yeah, that sounds like a good idea,” she replied. “Although, I’m fairly certain you want to have a go at the Queen title.”

“Maybe,” she said, shrugging it off. “But we should still try, right?”

“Yes,” she agreed. She stood up to full and started to walk towards the door. “I’ll meet you in five minutes in the North Courtyard.”

She smiled and waved goodbye as she left the cubicle and hence the door clicked behind her as she entered the corridor.

She collapsed back onto the toilet seat and broke out a sigh. She needed to prepare. She didn’t know how strong Remi was, but no one knew her own. Would she assume that the level on the article was her actual level?

She picked herself up and walked out the cubicle. Walking to the sink, she ran the water from the hot tap over her hands and washed off the soapy bubbles.

The thought of Isen always brought a heat to her cheeks, but he had to do that. Was the empty feeling inside heartbreak? Would Remi betray her?

She walked through the corridors, searching through the corridors for what could possibly be the North Courtyard. She didn’t know which was which yet.

“Oh my God. She’s a high-tier? And she wouldn’t tell anyone her ability? What a waste?”

“Do you think Joker will target her? I mean, we’ve got all these fake Jokers now and supposedly the actual Joker hasn’t appeared since the defeat of the Royals, but now there’s another high-tier.”

Maeve tears ran down her cheeks. Wouldn’t it ever stop? The whispers always followed her. There was never any escape. There was never a rest button.

“I’m fine, Blyke, really,” Remi told Blyke, smiling at him. She stood in the courtyard with Blyke, regretting telling him what was going down.

“But she challenged you to a fight. And you accepted,” Blyke replied, grabbing her hand. He clutched it in both hands and brought it up to the warmth of his chest. “Were you threatened? What if you lose?”

“Then she wins,” she answered, pulling her hand out of his fingers.

“But what would she do?” he responded. Why did they keep thinking Maeve would turn out to be like John?

“She would take up the role of Queen,” she answered, rolling her eyes in exasperation.

“But what would she do to you?” he asked her. “You saw what she did to Isen. And you held her back. Imagine what she would do if you hadn’t been there. Why would you want to fight her then?”

“She isn’t,” she said. Isen was still in the infirmary from the injury. “She told me the reasons why. It won’t happen again.”

“She put Isen in the infirmary,” Arlo responded, walking up them in the courtyard. His arms were crossed over his chest as his nose screwed up in distaste. “How do you know she won’t do the same to you?”

“Her reasons were personal to her. In fact, I’m not sure she even meant to do it,” she replied, “And Arlo, you should know why.”

“She shouldn’t be such a wimp then,” he answered, holding his chin up high.

“She refused to respond as she looked out into the courtyard. Maeve was walking up to them from the opposite end with a look of confusion on her face. 

“Well, bye!” She waved off as she headed off towards the girl.

“No!” shouted Blyke, grabbing her wrists. Pain flared up around her wrist at his grip as he dragged her back into his hard muscled chest. “I don’t want to see you get hurt again.”

Without a response, she wiggled her arm against his grip. Eventually, his grip loosed, his muscles relaxing, as his eyes stared at her, pleading in desperation. 

“I need to do this.”

She walked off, turning her back to the two boys.

“Are you okay?” Maeve mouthed at her, standing still in the centre of the courtyard.

Remi nodded as she took her final few stops towards her.

“Ready?” she asked. Her blazer did not cover her upper body, still left somewhere in the school building. Her skin glowed with a shine that she could not pinpoint.

“Yes.” Lightning charged around her as she took a stance of preparation. Pushing off with the ball of her foot, she leaped forward, aiming her hand to the target.

Her hand passed straight through her form when she reached her. Was that her only trick?

Glancing back, she noted that the lighting itself seemed to have had an effect. On turning up, her lilac hair had been smoothed over with her ability, but now it had become frazzled again, like it was affected by static.

“Okay, electricity then,” she said, a small smirk on her lips. What was she planning?

Suddenly, the shirt around the areas of her shoulder blacks bulged forward if the shoulder blades themselves enlarged. From her back, blood burst forth, quickly hardening into the form of glistening black scales covering large bat-like wings. They must have had a span of 6 foot. Each!

Remi picked herself back up off the ground from where she landed in a crouch and the lilacette spun on her toes to have her back facing Blyke and Arlo.

As she raced forward again, she notice a now-matching glistening til being wrapped around her leg as she stood in wait. It was thicker than either of her thighs, though not both together, with a creamy underside and it seemed to burst forth from her lower back.

Soon, Remi brought her hands up into the sky to summon the storm down from above, slowing her run as she came ever nearer to those violet eyes, but suddenly lost sight of her.

Those black wings pumped her forward as she took a small jump half a foot into the air. As quick as ever, the wings sped her forward, like the wind of a hurricane blurring her form to nothing more than a pale figure with flapping black wings on her back and a swishing tail stretched out behind her.

Before she took a breath of a gaps, her nails ripped through her currently white shirt, tearing at the skin beneath like animal claws.

Clutching her side, she looked over her shoulder to see that her hand had morphed into a black hard scaled hand with the fingers as elongated claws that ended in sharp points.

She needed to strike her. She couldn’t let her win without at least landing a blow on her. At least two.

In a second of a minute, she aimed the tip of her finger towards the lilac head and lighting sparked through her veins. It charged through the air, like a magnet to the girl.

Maeve’s eyes widened and blood dripped down her lip as the lightning hit her. The wings and tail temporarily fell apart into the original substance of blood before they drew back together into their moulded form.

Was it another healing factor?

However, in her moment of distraction, she raced forward, boosted by her lightning, and reached forward to the girl’s wrist once she was close enough.

She was dragged forward as Maeve jerked away from her grip and fell onto the floor with a thud, her back laying against the dusty ground. Remi’s hands landed on either side of her head and her knees on either side of her hips.

Without hesitation, she brought her sparking hand down to her face.

Suddenly, her hand was gripped by Maeve’s pale fingers, snatched away from the girl’s face. Her wrist was pinned to the floor. The joint felt like it was going to snap at the seams.

The air flow stopped flowing as saliva swallowed into her airway. Her knees had kicked up into her stomach, sharp blades protruding from the bone. Holes dripped blood from her stomach.

Her muscles trembled in her arm. Maeve pushed at her shoulder and she collapsed beneath both forces. Coughing up the liquid, her breathing came in rapid, short, heavy gasps as her back crashed into the ground below.

With the electric impulses flashing around her body, nothing could respond with more than twitches. The emptiness in her stomach brought the wrath of pain flooding her body.

“Do you surrender?” she whispered in her era before she pushed herself up onto her knees.

She nodded as Maeve brought herself up to full standing.

“All hail the Shapeshifting Queen.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> 2266 words.
> 
> I remember writing this fight scene and just how long it took to actually get started. I'm not sure how I manage to write several pages worth before getting to the point. To be fair, I did the same in my English exam today.
> 
> Maeve is slowly becoming more confident with herself.


	20. Texts

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> As with chapter 16, this is not from a particle point of view.

???: Hi, it’s Rei. I got your number from Sam.

Mary: Oh then it’s Mary

Mary: Why did you ask Sam?

Rei: She’s your friend? She had your number.

Mary: She’s not my friend

Rei: Well, she had your number.

Mary: We were in a group project once

Rei: Well, what are you doing over this summer?

Mary: Planned on doing more but I’ve ended up watching my brother and sister make fools of themselves

Mary: sent a photo  
A ravenette boy threw his hands up above his head, the short sleeves of his shirt gathering at his shoulder, and cowered by a grey leather sofa as a younger blonde held a cushion above her head. The cushion had a cross hatched pattern of blue with a white over the top, and it creased around where the girl gripped it. Her mouth hung open in a moment of passion.

Mary: This is what babysitting looks like

Mary: I’m not getting paid for this

Rei: Suddenly, my sister’s the best person I have ever met.

Mary: How is she

Rei: She’s baking cookies. Something about flowers.

Mary: How old is she

Rei: 13

Mary: John’s 14 and Ella’s 11   
Mary: Ella’s an August child

Rei: So she will be turning 12 this year?

Mary: Yeah  
Mary: Saying she was 11 made it sound like she was younger than she is

Rei: Wait, how old are you?

Mary: 16 now

Rei: Oh, was it recent?

Mary: My birthday’s in May

Rei: So you dethroned Lillian when you were 15

Rei: What is your ability by the way?

Mary: Fire Claws  
Mary: I got measured the other day  
Mary: I’m 6.2

Rei: How?

Mary: My mother’s a God-tier

Rei: That’s a reason.

Rei: Guess she has a high level then.

Mary: Yes  
Mary: But I don’t know what  
Mary: I live with my dad

Rei: Are they divorced?

Mary: No  
Mary: I’m going to have to go  
Mary: Ella’s managed to destroy an entire shelf’s worth of dishes  
Mary: And John’s vanished  
Mary: He’s literally avoiding clearing up

Rei: How did she destroy an entire shelf’s worth?

Mary: She’s clumsy as fuck

Mary: sent a photo  
The blonde girl from before, the only one of her siblings to have razor straight hair, sat on the floor, leaning back on her hands. She smiled up at the camera with a goofy grin on her face, trying to avoid any possible guilt being shown. Shattered pieces of china and ceramics laid around, mismatched and clearly from multiple dishes. Her legs, bare apart from where her jean shorts covered her thighs, were unscratched and so were her arms, also bare apart from her white t-shirt.  
Mary: I don’t know how she didn’t get hurt  
Mary: Or does this all the time  
Mary: She’s a gymnast somehow

Rei: She does this a lot?

Mary: Yes  
Mary: I’ve heard my dad complaining about the new dish bill a lot

Rei: Well, she doesn’t seem hurt.

Mary: She’s not hurt

Rei: Does she have a super strength ability?

Mary: She doesn’t have an ability

Rei: Oh

Mary: Anyway I have to go

Rei: Did the babysitting go well?

Mary: As well as it could with that bad start  
Mary: I ended up babysitting John’s friend too  
Mary: He literally went next door when Ella broke the dishes

Rei: His parents let you babysit him?

Mary: She may not have talked to her parents before she came over  
Mary: They do this all the time

Rei: We don’t have any children nearby to hang out with

Mary: Doesn’t your sister attend a local school?

Rei: She does but we’re on the edge of the catchment area.  
Rei: It takes quite a bit of arrangement for her and her friends to meet up.  
Rei: And, as middle schoolers, they didn’t share phone numbers.  
Rei: In fact, I don’t believe they all have phones.

Mary: I didn’t have a phone in middle school.  
Mary: It would have got broken a lot anyway

Rei: What do you think of the hierarchy?

Mary: It’s irritating

Mary: I always wonder how my life would have been different if the hierarchy didn’t exist

Rei: We could start to put it into non-existence

Mary: How?

Rei: We could start with the school. We’re both King and Queen now and we can select a Jack, so no one could stop us.   
Rei: And then we would help low-tiers. We would have the higher tiers support the lower tiers, so we would all be equal.

Mary: How would this work though?

Rei: The low-tiers would gain a confidence in themselves, and they would be more confident to stand up for themselves. With confidence, they would be able to get better work for themselves. People would have to take them more seriously and this would increase societies opinions of them.  
Rei: It would take a long time.

Mary: But tiers are banned from taking certain jobs  
Mary: How would they get better jobs?

Rei: The restrictions aren’t overly limiting.  
Rei: It would take a long time to have the president job open to everyone qualified.

Rei: But it would eliminate bullying.

Mary: It would?

Rei: Yes, mostly. There will still be bullying, but a lot of it is based off the hierarchy. It would push the amount one sees down.

Mary: Really?

Rei: Yes.

Mary: Ok  
Mary: So what would we do?

Rei: Have the high tiers help the low tiers

Mary: Ok

Mary: You didn’t respond?

Rei: There was nothing more to say

Mary: Who would be the Jack?  
Mary: Please don’t say Kuyo

Rei: I don’t know yet. We would see when the new year begins.  
Rei: What’s wrong with Kuyo?

Mary: He hates me  
Mary: I think he worshipped Lillian  
Mary: He would call me low-tier and shit  
Mary: I’m literally the strongest in the school

Rei: He hates met too  
Rei: I defended a low-tier in our first-year and we were roommates.  
Rei: Still roommates

Mary: That must be hard

Rei: We just ignore each other in the dorm now

Mary: I’m glad I don’t have a roommate

Rei: People without roommates are lucky

Mary: Except when you want someone to talk to

Rei: But what if you don’t get along?

Mary: Good point

Mary: Rabbit!!!!!!!!!!!!  
Mary: sent a photo  
A fluffy toy rabbit laid on her feet, patches of grey fur above the top of the white fur. Her fair skin on her feet were bare, her toe nails painted gold, and her pyjamas hung loose around her calves. The white material of the pyjama bottoms was covered in polka dots of varying shades of red folded as it fell off the edge of her leg to lay on the light blue duvet. The bottoms tightened around her thighs. 

A hot flush rushed to his cheeks. She wasn’t wearing underwear in the photo. Her boobs were unrestrained beneath the clothing of a plain pink shirt, and there were no lines beneath her bottoms.

Rei: Woah

Mary: I think my brother’s trying to hide it from my sister

Mary: But now  
Mary: sent a photo  
Her pale hands clasped around the fluffy body of the rabbit as she held it up to the camera. It caught the rabbits emotionless face in the photo.  
Mary: I’m keeping it

Rei: Won’t she come to get it?

Mary: Depends whether she figures it out

Rei: But won’t she figure it out?

Mary: Well she’s yelling at John now  
Mary: So she probably will

Rei: …  
Rei: I don’t take stuffed animals from my sister

Mary: She’s not Ella

Rei: Whaa ????

Mary: Ella’s the embodiment of Chaos  
Mary: My dad will back that up

Rei: What has she done?

Mary: Broken over a hundred dishes  
Mary: Found every staircase in school and tripped down it  
Mary: By ACCIDENT!!!!  
Mary: Pissed off way too many people at her school  
Mary: And she isn’t sure how

Rei: I swear all mid-tiers and elite-tiers get angry at low-tiers though

Mary: Yeah  
Mary: To be fair John does that too

Rei: Yup

Mary: But John has anger issues  
Mary: I think I used to have anger issues

Rei: I think you did

Mary: What do you mean?  
Mary: I’m going to have to go  
Mary: I can hear them shouting  
Mary: I’m going to pretend to be asleep when she comes in  
Mary: And then go to sleep  
Mary: See you later

Rei: Bye then

Mary: I’m actually at my Mum’s  
Mary: sent a photo  
A house with a two storey entryway stood at the end of a grey stone drive. The door itself was one storey, but there was an arched window above it, showing the entrance way behind it. There was a floor above it with small windows just below the almost flat light pink slated roof. The part of the building next to the archway had a curved wall that held tall arch shaped windows. Unlike the other part, it was only two storeys high and the curved part next to it was one storey high with parts sticking out further along the building.

On the other side was a thinner curved cream part of the building that was three storeys, and it was higher than the part next to it. Then the part next to it stuck out of it, two storeys, and then the one storey part next to it looked to be the garage with the long door. 

Rei: I know you said your mum was a God-tier but you didn’t also say she was rich

Mary: I didn’t realise she was this rich  
Mary: She’s single  
Mary: I don’t think anyone else lives here

Rei: What is she doing there?

Mary: She travels a lot on business  
Mary: She says she wants to train me on my ability though  
Mary: She doesn’t even have the same ability as me

Rei: Did you inherit your ability from your dad?

Mary: No, my aunt

Rei: Does your dad also not have an ability?

Mary: Yeah  
Mary: I sometimes wonder how my parents met

Rei: I think anyone would

Mary: At least my mother isn’t judgmental

Rei: Doesn’t sound like she would be

Mary: Yeah, she’s calling me in now  
Mary: I have to go

Rei: Bye

Rei: How’s going back to school going?

Mary: I’m not allowed to talk to my siblings

Rei: Why?

Mary: My brother is trying to get my dad to send him to Wellston

Rei: Why can’t he?

Mary: My brother barely passed his classes last year  
Mary: He also doesn’t have an ability yet

Rei: Yeah, I get why your dad doesn’t want him to go here.  
Rei: I’m just moving back into my dorm room.  
Rei: Thankfully, Kuyo’s not here yet.

Mary: I’ll come over when I’m there  
Mary: My mum’s dropping me off  
Mary: I should be there in about an hour

Rei: You don’t have to come over

Mary: But I want to  
Mary: Summers been ages

Rei: Okay  
Rei: I’ll guess I will see you then

Rei: I’ve meet someone who could be our Jack  
Rei: sent a photo  
A short first-year stood with a scowl on his face. His blond hair tumbled into his eyes as he stared up at Rei and into the camera. His uniform was scuffed up, his blazer marked with marks and a few tears along the edges. He did not wear the school’s grey vest.

Mary: He looks angry

Rei: Haha  
Rei: He just tried to dethrone me  
Rei: I think he got ahead of himself after defeating a bunch of mid-tiers and elite-tiers. Including Kuyo!

Mary: Kuyo deserved it

Rei: I wouldn’t wish harm on him though

Mary: That’s because you are you  
Mary: You don’t wish harm on anyone  
Mary: Anyway, what’s his name?

Rei: Arlo  
Rei: I may have to go  
Rei: He’s just glaring at me as I’m typing

Mary: I’d be too

Rei: You are the only person who I text though.

Mary: So I wouldn’t have to them

Rei: Well, here’s his number ----------------  
Rei: He may text you soon

Mary: I’ll look for it then  
Mary: Bye!

Rei: See you at lunch

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> 2036 words. 
> 
> I don't think there will be many full text chapters like this. I find the improper grammar frustrating to write.


	21. Sleepover

Maeve’s breath came short and heavy as she stood over Remi. She needed to become better at fighting. She may be able to easily win a fight, but she shouldn’t be this out of breath.

Taking a few steps, she went on her knees near Remi’s head and took her head into her lap. She held her hands against her shoulders and concentrated. She focused on the skin crawling and joining together, the inner tissue sealing and healing.

“What are you doing?” cried out a male voice (clear to the ear), gaining volume as it came towards her. It sounded like Blyke, but without glancing up she couldn’t be sure. “Get your filthy hands off her. Have you any idea what you have done? Wait, her wounds are gone.”

Her body relaxed as her ability deactivated. The aura around her eyes died; an energy drained by a few drops throughout her own body. It was done.

She opened her eyes to the bright light, seeing the blonde asshole and Remi’s boyfriend – Blyke the red head – who were glaring down at her.

“Did you just heal her?” asked Arlo, crossing his arms over his chest as he stood miles above them. Blyke had knelt down at her feet, Remi having slightly drawn her legs up. “Does form manipulation contain that?”

“Yes, yes it does Arlo, obviously,” Remi replied, pushing herself up to sitting, straightening her legs slightly in front of her so Blyke was still at her toes.

“Remi, you shouldn’t sit up so soon,” Maeve told her, leaning over to support her back. “You don’t know that it healed over properly.”

“yes, you shouldn’t. What if you got hurt worse?” Blyke chimed in.

“Blyke, calm down,” Remi replied, slouching against Maeve. “I didn’t want to be injured forever.”

“Then take a rest,” Maeve said.

“What were you doing?” questioned Arlo after the conversation dulled to silence, scowling from above. “Why were you, a 5.1, going for the Queen title at Wellston? All our Queens have been stronger than that.”

“Pardon but the article got it wrong,” she snapped back, seething through her teeth. A snarl broke out across her lips. “I’m a 6.5. Were you the one who got him to write the article?”

Blyke stared at her with his gold wide eyes, his mouth hanging agape. “A 6.5. I had no idea.”

“You should take more care about your position then,” he told her, reaching forward. He held her hand and brought it to his lips.

A spike grew out of her hand, piercing through the flesh of the centre of his hand. She snatched her hand away.

“Don’t touch me!”

“You’re a God-tier too. We should spend more time together,” he replied, smiling at him.

“Of course, you’re a God-tier. She rolled her eyes at him. “I wouldn’t care if I never saw you again.”

She turned to Remi. “Do you want to go to the infirmary? The school nurse should check out your injuries.”

“Yes,” she replied. Blyke slid one of his arms under her knees and placed his other hand on her upper back. He lifted her up as he stood up and she placed her hands against his chest to support her balance.

Maeve walked ahead of them, holding the doors open for Blyke.

Arlo was left by himself in the courtyard, staring at the blood dripping out of his hand. A bluenette ran up to him once they were out of her earshot.

Entering the infirmary, the school nurse, Darren, gestured for Blyke to take Remi to one of the infirmary beds that wasn’t taken. Though only one was taken.

“What happened?” asked the Doc, scowling at Maeve and Blyke as he walked over. “She doesn’t look injured anymore.”

“I healed her but we thought it would be better to make sure it was healed properly,” she explained, pressing the tips of her fingers together with her nerves. “With that deep of an injury, I can’t be certain that every bit has healed over. Or healed over correctly.”

“Well, if you are the person who cut Isen, heal him. Heal him even if you weren’t,” he said, standing over Remi as he glared at the lilac haired girl.

Hestiantly, she walked over to where Isen looked at her from. He stared at her, his eyes tracing over her body. “How you cheek?”

“Still stinging,” he replied, crossing his arms over his chest as she walked closer. She brought her hand up to his cheek and activated her ability. “What are you doing?”

The sliced skin climbed and clinged together millmetre by millimetre as it stitched itself until it sealed with no scar.

“You healed me,” he responded, shock in his voice. It was empty, dull, like emotionless eyes.

“Yes,” she replied, smiling down at him as she placed her knee on the bed’s mattress. “But you still owe me.”

“Owe you what?” He grinned at her, colour flushing back to his face.

“I don’t know yet,” she answered. She turned her body to the side, cutting off eye contact, as she pressed two fingers to her lips in teasing question. “Maybe correcting the level you got wrong in that article. It’s embarrassing to think people are out there thinking that I’m a 5.1 when I’m actually a God-tier.”

“You’re a God-tier?” he exclaimed, choking on air. He stared up at her with wide eyes of fear. 

“Yes, why do you care so much?” she replied, glancing at her nails as she fained disinterest. She sat on the bed, her butt near his legs.

“I could have been murdered,” he mumbled in response, moving his continuous eyeline to the feet.

“Why would I kill you?” she asked back, turning to face him.

“You won’t believe what God-tiers have threatened me with before,” he answered, smiling his goofy smile up at her.

“I would never want to hurt you,” she replied, taking a further step forward towards him. “You’re too hot for that.”

She waited for him to respond, blood rushing to his face, but even the conversation between Doc, Remi and Blyke froze.

“Maeve, do you realise how much of a hypocrite you just were?” Remi asked.

“What do you mean?” she replied.

“Well, you’re not going to see it then,” Remi answered.

She took a pause as she stared at her with her mouth agape. “Why don’t you tell me then.”

“It won’t be worth the energy.”

“What do you mean?” she asked, standing up in a rush. “Please tell me.”

Instead, Remi laughed into her hand.

Heat raced to Elaine’s cheek as Arlo pushed a strand of hair, which had been falling down into her face, out of the way and tucked it behind her ear.

“Thank you, Elaine,” he said. He smiled down at her, making her heart flutter in her chest, and checked at his healed hand. “I swear you’re getting better.”

“It’s just practice,” she replied, looking at the ground with a red heat in her cheeks.

“Well, you should keep doing what your doing,” he replied.

The conversation turned to the unmemorable and then she headed inside. Remi suggested her and Maeve have a ‘sleepover’ (tomorrow was Saturday) and she’d agreed.

Elaine ended up sitting on the sofa awkwardly, having changed into a loose striped black and white t-shirt with light grey jogging pants, whist Seraphina glared daggers at the back of Maeve’s head. She didn’t get why Seraphina seemed to hate the lilac haired girl (though Maeve could be easy to hate) and she couldn’t get an explanation out of her. Well, Maeve was right in front of them.

Maeve had changed into a t—shirt that was black and decorated with a massive gold star that had a man shooting his ability up into the air instead of the top 5th point. This t-shirt was tucked into a light grey shorts made of a comfort material that reached mid-thigh.

Seraphina walked forward in her baby pink pyjama bottoms that fluttered around her legs and a plain white t-shirt with a small pockets on one of her breasts. Her hair did not reach as far as it normally did with the artificial part of her hair removed.

“So, what are we doing?” she asked Maeve as she sat down in one of the arm chairs around the coffee table.

“I don’t know. Remi invited me here as well as Elaine,” Maeve replied, shrugging her shoulders.

“And you have no clue what we’re doing?” she questioned, raising an eyebrow at her.

A sudden redness reached Maeve’s cheeks as she puffed them out. “It was Remi’s idea. I’m not sure what she had in mind, but I guess it would be the usual sleepover games.”

“I would like to play ‘Truth or Dare’ with you.” Seraphina smiled sinisterly at her.

Oh God, what was Seraphina planning to do with Maeve? The petty hatred radiating from her darkened the room, though Maeve was seemingly oblivious.

“Me too. That would be fun,” Maeve replied, smiling her sincere smile back at her. Did she have no clue?

“What would be fun?” asked Remi. She had opened the door by pressing her elbow down on the door handle as a tube of pringles, a set of nail paints and at least two bags occupied her hands and now she was fumbling with her attempt to close the door to the room. After a few moments of staring at Remi in astonishment, before either could say a word, she kicked the door shut with her foot, creating a bang as it shaked in the door frame.

As she walked into the centre of the room, Elaine took note of her outfit for it would indicate what Remi had meant by this get together.

She wore a navy polo shirt that had faded in it’s colour over the years and apair of shorts with it. The shorts were situated with a light grey background and a pattern of electric blue lightning bolts coming out of white fluffy clouds.

“Truth of Dare,” answered Maeve, snapping Elaine out of her distraction.

“Really? Would that be fun?” questioned Remi, gritting her teeth as she took a moment of self-reflection.

She must be worried on what they would question her on, Elaine thought.

“Do you have another idea then?” asked Maeve after seeing her reaction. She crossed her legs over on the sofa.

“I was thinking makeovers,” Remi admitted, placing the objects in her hands on the coffee table as she glanced to the side with a bright red hue on her cheeks. “Though, ‘Truth of Dare’ does sound like a sleepover thing to do.”

“Do you want to play ‘Truth or Dare’?” asked Maeve, her voice an innocent tone. “She had no clue, did she?”

“No, I just already can guess what you are going to ask me,” she replied, mumbling so her words were barely audible.

“Well then,” Seraphina said, standing up. She walked over until she stood above Elaine. “Come on.” She offered her arm out to her, which she accept, and was pulled up to standing.

Elaine sat down on the dark red carpet with Seraphina kneeling behind her. Remi brought a bag forward as she went to sit in front of her and Maeve moved off the sofa. 

“I’ve got face masks.”

In agreement, Remi brought out bowls and mixed up the liquids with a spoon. With the pad, the pinkette spread the cool white liquid across her cheeks.

Her head laid in Seraphina’s lap as Remi pressed the pad across her face. Maeve leant forward to help, but her fell across her face.

“Maeve, your hair.”

“Oh,” she replied. Her eyes flashed violet as she gripped half her hair and pulled a band off her wrist. Quickly, her hair flowed like water into the perfect shape of twin buns on either side of her head and the rest of her hair flowed down to her collarbone.

Then Maeve went forward to help Remi over the rest of her face with the mask. Soon, she swapped places with Maeve, who was much more nervous than the rest. She guessed that she didn’t use makeup with an ability like that.

Remi pained her face with the cushioned pad and the white soon covered her cheeks and forehead in strokes.

“I still can’t believe you dethroned me. When I accepted, I didn’t realise how wrong he had gotten your level.”

“Wait, he got your level wrong?” asked Seraphina, her mouth falling open as Maeve and Remi swapped places.

“Yes, he did,” she replied, staring into the girl’s blue eyes.

“Then what is your level?” she asked.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> 2109 words.
> 
> If you can't tell, I don't use face masks. I have no clue how to use face masks and when I looked it up I couldn't be bothered to change their actions. Don't use face masks like this.
> 
> I also haven't attended sleepovers for ages.
> 
> What do you think of Isen x Maeve?


	22. Truth or Dare

“Then what is your level?” asked Seraphina. Her eyes pierced into the lilac’s violet eyes, searching for the truth in the soul as that was what she wanted.

Her blood boiled with hatred. Not only would John spend more time with that slut than her, but now she was Queen. She was the strongest girl in the school! That was supposed to be her! She was supposed to be his Queen!

She ground her teeth together.

“Wait, before either of you respond, can you pass Seraphina the pad?” asked Remi, her head lying in her lap as a pillow. “I’m fairly certain you’ve never used makeup before.”

With a sigh, Maeve passed Seraphina the pad. Then Seraphina painted the mask across the ex-Queen’s face.

“I’m a 6.5,” she explained, twisting a strand of her now collarbone length lilac hair around her finger. “Isen was forced to produce an article quickly and could only get met to answer some of his questions for the article without alerting to me to what he could be planning. He didn’t ask me my level, so he had to estimate what it could be from information he already knew to make the article seem true. That happened to only be that I’m a high-tier. Luckily, there wasn’t too much majorly false in there.”

“Why did Isen write that?” she asked. She swore all the guys were pawing for her attention (except for Blyke) but a stupid decision like that would do the opposite of what he wanted.

“Arlo. Arlo got him to write that,” she replied, verging on snapping from resurrected anger. Did he always hate those who weren’t open with their abilities?

“Why would he do that?” questioned Elaine, who leant forward on her two hands. She looked up at her with shinning wide eyes. Gosh, she forgot she had a crush on her.

“Apparently he’s obsessed with the hierarchy,” Maeve explained, sighing. “I don’t get that.”

“He likes to be in power.” Seraphina crossed her arms over her chest as Remi sat up. “I swear he tried to date me once for it.”

“He tried to kiss my hand today,” Maeve added, leaning casually back against the sofa. “He said something about God-tiers sticking together.”

“God, I remember that,” Remi commented. She really did even attract Arlo.

“He did that?” questioned Elaine. Her wide bright green eyes were brimmed with tears.

“I think it’s time for ‘Truth or Dare’,” Maeve answered, her gaze lingering on Elaine’s face before glancing away without another care. Really? Now?

“I haven’t had my facial mask done yet,” Seraphina said, shuffling along to Remi. She gestured to her lap where Seraphina laid her head as Remi acquired the pad again. 

“We can still play ‘Truth or Dare’,” Elaine said, her voice blue but not giving much way of her emotion. “I’ll start. 1,2,3.”

“4, 5, 6,” Maeve continued.

“7, 8, 9,” Remi replied.

“10, 11,” Seraphina responded.

“12,” Elaine said.

“13, 14, 15,” Maeve answered.

“16, 17,” Remi replied.

“18, 19,” Seraphina said.

“20,” Elaine responded. 

“21,” Maeve finished, sighing and collapsing back into the sofa.

“Okay, do you have a crush on Isen?” Remi asked, energy bouncing her body as Serahina sat up and shuffled away.

“You didn’t even confer with us for that question,” Seraphina replied, her voice drawling. “You should have asked ‘who do you have a crush on’?”

“I didn’t even bleedin’ say ‘truth’ actually,” Maeve responded with bitter anger. She clenched her fists to her lap. “Though, I would have said it anyway.”

“So, what’s your answer?” she asked. Did she really have a crush on just one boy? She had went out with John, hadn’t she?

“Yes, yes I have a crush on him,” she replied, her words spinning together. There was a light pink hue beneath the mask.

“Really? Why?” Seraphina asked, smirking as she leant forward on her arms with her hands laying on her knees.

“No longer my turn,” she responded, smiling as she casually threw her hands in the air. “Remi’s starting.”

“1,” Remi started.

“2, 3, 4,” Seraphina responded.

“5, 6, 7,” Elaine continued.

“8, 9.”

“10, 11, 12.”

“13, 14, 15.”

“16, 17, 18,” Elaine replied.

“19, 20.”

“21,” Remi finished, smiling ever so slightly.

“Okay, truth or dare,” Maeve said, smiling with anticipation. 

“Dare,” Remi replied, “I know what you’re going to ask for truth.”

“Call Blyke and put the call on speaker without telling him,” Maeve ordered, smirking as she clapped her hands together in excitement.

“No, no. How did you even come up with that?” she questioned, colour draining out of her face. She fidgeted about where she sat as she gripped her phone out of her pocket and clutched it to her chest. “I pick truth. I pick truth!”

“Oh, Remi,” Seraphina said, wrapping her arm over the pinkette’s shoulders. She could team up with Maeve for this one, especially due to her reaction. “You picked dare and you can’t back out now.”

“Oh God,” she gasped out, her breath racing beneath Seraphina’s touch. Her grip laxed the case around her phone, which allowed Maeve to reach forward and snatch the phone out of her hand. She brought the screen to face her eyes and moved her thumbs across it. “How do you know my password?”

“I don’t.” She turned the phone back to her with it still on the lockscreen of a photo of a selfie with Remi, Blyke and Isen. “But can you enter it?”

“If you give me my phone back I will,” she replied, signalling her to give it back as Seraphina brought her arm back.

“Fine.” She sighed and shoved it back into her hand.

She clicked her nails across the screen and pressed on a button before stopping. The ringing reverberated through the air until it was picked up.

“Hello,” his voice rang out through the air. “Remi?”

“Yes?”

“…You were the one who called me.”

He must have been doing something. In all recent incidents, Blyke would worship Remi if she asked.

“Oh…” She turned to face Maeve and Elaine, whispering, “What should I say?”

Reaching over to her bag, the lilac haired girl brought out a notebook, tore out a page and wrote across the page with a pencil she had gained.

‘Ask him out’ was written across the page when she lifted it up, prompting the visible rolling of Remi’s eyes.

With a quick glance, Elaine snatched the paper out of her hand and was soon passed through the pencil too. The graphite was pressed against the paper and then she brought it up into the air. The words ‘Ask about his day’ was a scrawl against Maeve’s artistic handwriting.

“How was your day?” she asked in her phone, which was close to her mouth with the benefit of speaker.

“It’s gotten better, why?”

“Oh, I was just wondering…” she replied, trailing off. She glanced at the two in hesitation.

“Hey, Seraphina!” yelled a girl’s voice. It was Evie.

“Yes,” she called back, receiving glares from the other girls. Evie was worth it though. 

“Can I come in?” she asked.

“Yes.”

The door opened and the dark pink haired girl entered. She pressed the door closed behind her and walked into the room.

“Why is Remi holding the phone like that?” she asked before taking a moment to think. Her face whitened as fear engulfed her eyes. “Wait, sorry.”

She bowed her head and ran to Seraphina’s side. She clutched her top in her hands and buried her head in her body.

“I don’t care that much,” Remi replied, smiling at Evie. A long time ago, she hated Remi from the fear of what her brother put the school through (based on Arlo and Cecile’s word) but relief flooded through her at her attitude now.

“Are you also on speaker phone?” called out a voice. Isen. Did they also get tricked?

Maeve face grew red through the silence as she bit her lip to contain herself. Suddenly, her laugh bursted out of her lips, quickly muffled by her arm.

“I take that’s Maeve,” Isen replied.

“Bye,” Blyke said a second after Isen’s words and hung up the call.

“Huh, he sounded offended there,” Remi commented after she let the sound of the hang-up ring.

“Yes, that’s because you’re dating, Remi,” Maeve explained. 

“But we’re not!” Remi exclaimed in exasperation.

“But you are,” Seraphina responded.

“You two dating would make a lot of sense,” Elaine said, reaching forward and starting the tin of pringles. “But aren’t you two” – she turned to Seraphina and Evie – “fueding.”

“That’s why I came here tonight,” Evie replied, pulling her head out of Seraphina’s arm.

“I forgot we were for a moment,” Seraphina answered without a beat after. “Do you want to come to my room for a second then?”

“Yes please,” Evie responded.

Standing up and leading the way, the girl’s continued counting as they left to Seraphina’s room.

“Why did you want to talk to me?” she asked after the door closed behind them. “And I’m sorry for what I did. I acted irrationally.”

“I also came to apologise,” Evie said, glancing down at her feet. She clenched her hands in front of her. “I didn’t think through why you would be angry at him and I guess I didn’t really realise it until I got knocked unconscious by one of the fake joker attacks.”

“Wait, what?” exclaimed Seraphina, dropping her hands to her sides. How could he? She may have been angry with Evie, but she still cared about her. Watching Maeve tonight, she realised her assumptions might be wrong, but what sort of monster would cause this? The knuckles on her fists turned white. How could Maeve support that?

“Roland, Terrence and I were attacked by a fake joker. I think it was the dizzy punch girl but they ran away before we could do anything. So did Terrence. He fled like a coward,” she explained, her words falling out of her mouth with barely any pause. “She mainly got away because she knocked me unconscious in one hit and Roland had to take me to the infirmary. Is Remi mad at me? I don’t want to have annoyed the Queen.”

“The lilac haired girl, Maeve, is the Queen now,” she replied. How could Maeve support someone who allowed that to happen? “She dethroned Remi earlier this day.”

“Oh, maybe things will get better then,” Evie responded, keeping her voice low.

“They won’t,” she replied, sighing. Blood boiled in her veins and she reached forward. Grabbing Evie’s wrist, she took a bounce in her stride and dragged them back to the living room.

“Hey, you’re back. Want to start a new round?” Remi asked. Elaine’s cheeks were bright red. Evie nodded.

“1,2,” Maeve started.

“3, 4, 5,” Remi replied.

“6, 7,” Seraphina responded.

“8, 9,” Evie continued.

“10, 11, 12,” Elaine answered.

“13.”

“14, 15.”

“16, 17, 18.”

“19.”

“20,” Elaine continued.

“21,” Maeve finished. “Come on, again?” She sighed and collapsed into the sofa behind her.

“Which guys have you slept with?” asked Seraphina, smirking from where she sat. She placed her elbow on her knee that was drawn up in front of her. Raise awareness to the others about this whore.

Maeve froze, staring at her with her wide eyes. “1) I haven’t even said if I chose ‘Truth’ or ‘Dare’ and I now chose ‘Dare’. 2) What the fuck?!”

“A ‘Dare’ then.” She took a moment of thought. “Show us your texts with John.”

“What?” Her mouth fell open and her eyes glistened with fear. 

“Show us your texts with John,” she repeated, smirking as the other girl started turning white. “If you’re not going to tell us who you have slept with, you may as well detail a communication with one.”

“No,” she responded, clutching her knees up to her chest. A tear ran down her cheek.

“What? You’re too much of a whore to do either. Don’t want to admit it,” she laughed, moving her hand to follow her speech.

“Please stop, she begged, more tear running down her cheeks in fat ugly streaks. “Don’t say anything more,” she lashed out.

“So it’s-”

“Calm down, Seraphina,” Remi said, standing up and moving between the two. “That was uncalled for.” Turning to Maeve, she continued, “Are you okay?”

“I’ll think I’ll head to my room,” she replied, barely above a whisper. She stood up, grabbed her bag and headed out the door.

“Look what you did!” cried out Remi a few beats after the door closed with a click. She threw her arm out in gesture.

“I think I’m going to take a walk,” she replied, wearing a poker face to here motion that removed any emotions now dead voice. 

No one stopped her, nor spoke a word, as she quickly washed the mask off her face, grabbed a long coat off the hook and slipped her feet into her boots. She closed the door behind her and walked down the empty hallway.

Why did she have to react lie that? Immediately, she brought others to her side.

The cold wind blew behind her as she walked under the bright white stars upon the navy sky. Ducking out the gate, she kept her pace down the block, barely looking ahead to check for obstacles. 

Why couldn’t they see? Their own reports stated she had drawn all those boys attention and she was willing to accept all of their advances for attention. The boys kept looking at her that way. Why couldn’t John do that with her like he used to?

“Omph.” She stumbled back pushed by the force of walking into a stationary object. Bringing her head up, she met the burning gold eyes, angular in shape, that belonged to a tall woman with straight long locks of gold, her body partially obscured by her dark trench coat. “Sorry, madam.”

“It’s alright, Seraphina. You were just who I was looking for.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> 2330 words.
> 
> It's happening. 
> 
> Due to the fact that I wouldn't be able to make a deadline, I dropped something that I was working on. This now means I have enough free time to be posting twice a week again (I would have said on Friday, but I hadn't made the decision then). So I'll post the continuation on Friday. 


	23. Take the Dare

“It’s alright, Seraphina. You were just who I was looking for,” the blonde woman said, a strand of hair falling across her face.

“How do you know my name?” she cried out, stumbling back a few steps. Blood rushed through her veins; adrenaline kicked in, pumping her heart in a race. Energy bursted through her. She turned away, preparing leap forward to retrace her steps.

“I know how to get your ability.”

She froze in her stance.

“What-” she was cut off by the lady.

She turned to face the blonde lady as she continued.

“There was a mix up,” she explained, twirling a strand of her honey blonde hair around a finger. Acting. “We are an organisation that catches escaped criminals. Unfortunately, you matched the profile of a suspect of ours almost perfectly. We want to make up for this by giving you a chance to activate your ability again.”

She blinked. This woman was lying, her put on tone was easy to tell, but about what? She definitely wasn’t a ‘lowly’ worker like she was pretending with her acting of nerves and her ‘we’. Maybe she thought that would make her more likable and easier to trust. Or as insignificant as it could be. 

“Okay?” she questioned. But with all the red flags, why would she not refuse? “When would I start?”

It made sense that the drug was for criminals; even for someone who loved knowledge, she had always wondered how high tiers that were locked up in prisons were held. The only people who could stop a God tier is another God tier and any God tier would refuse to be prison guards at the worst of times. They could always do better than that for a career. An easy solution would be blocking one’s ability – though likely only for the worst cases or capture of an escaped convict or someone on the run. The cuffs didn’t work at all by that stage.

“There’s a catch,” the lady continued, clasping her hands out in front of her with a ‘sincere’ smile on her face. 

What would a catch be? Did a catch matter? As long as her ability was permanently brought back, she wouldn’t care. She probably had a few other standards, but she didn’t know what it was until the actual offer was presented in front of her. Right in front of her. Would she care what it was? She would kill for her ability back.

“What’s the catch?” she asked, raising a magenta eyebrow back.

“We need the location of one of your classmates,” she explained with her voice of honey. She moved her clasped hands from in front of her to behind her, her finger clutching her elbow behind her back. 

Which classmate was it? And why? If it was Evie, no. She didn’t want to put her in harms way. Or Elaine. Or Remi.

“Who?”

“John Doe,” she answered back, her voice not faltering from her dead flat tone.

She snorted. Why would she care what happened to him? Well, it could be positive, but they did have a two year friendship. A two year friendship of his, but it was still a friendship. He cold come to any harm she wanted.

But the silence engulfed her. She didn’t want to be the reason he died, but would that even happen? He deserved the same pain he had brought her, but that would be betrayal of trust.

“I need to time to think about this,” she replied, glancing to the side. Staring at the stars in the night sky, she held her chin up high with confidence. This was the right decision for her to make.

“I thought that would be the case,” the blonde lady responded, opening her coat up. She reached into her coat and pulled out a glossy white card, reflecting the limited yellow light, that was too small to be held with more than the tips of her fingers. “Here’s my business card.”

Again, why would a ‘lowly’ employee of have business card.

She accepted the card that was offered to her and brought it close to face to read in the limited light.

Venus Milla  
Favilla  
\-------------

The rest of the card was filled with swirls of thin black lines like ivy scattered with thorns.

It had a lack of information. Along with the three lines of information was a photo of the woman. In the photo, she had tied up her hair into a sleek high ponytail, not a strand out of place, and her goldeyes stared straight into the camera. Around her neck, the collar belonging to a white blouse began and a black blazer was also worn, tucked underneath the collar. 

“Favilla is latin for embers or glowing ashes,” she commented, staring at the swirly black font. 

“Oh, I didn’t realise,” the lady, Venus, responded. “My co-workers must have an odd sense of humour for naming our company that.”

“I’ll think about it,” she replied, turning away from her. “I’ll contact you if I decide ‘yes’.”

Venus did not stop her as she walked away, not looking back. She headed back towards the school. She didn’t want to meet another stranger on the streets today.

The woman did not respond, but she heard her clicking black heels against the concrete as she walked away.

Warm air hit her bare face as she entered the building. Quickly, she walked up the stairs and came to her room, where the girls were still giggling over ‘Truth or Dare’. 

“I can’t believe you have a crush on Holden!” shouted Remi, flinging herself back.

Seraphina sighed, turning her head away as she took off her coat. She had guessed that Evie had a crush on Holden even since the fight between Joker and the Royals. The way she had blushed when her eyes landed on him… It made her stomach turn that it was on that day. That anyone could take any enjoyment out of that day.

“Oh, Seraphina. You’re back,” greeted Elaine as she looked up from where she sat next to Evie on the sofa.

“Yeah, I am,” she replied dryly, barely giving a glance in their direction.

“You’re quicker than I thought you would be,” commented Remi, leaning on her elbow against the arm of the armchair as she looked over at her with the pale grey face mask glistening in the yellow light from the lamp.

“There were some altercations,” she answered, slipping out of her boots.

“But you were gone for long enough to not have been caught by Keene or another member of security,” Remi responded, not glancing back to the other girls as she held her gaze on her.

“But there were altercations,” she replied. “What are you trying to accuse me of?”

Without a second though, she stomped off to her room, slamming the door shut behind her.

“I’m going to check on her,” she heard Remi say to the other two.

She flopped onto the duvet. She didn’t want anyone to talk to her.

“Sera,” she said as she pushed the door closed behind her. “Are you okay?”

“I’m fine.” She sat up and swung her legs off the edge of the bed as Remi came to sit down next to her.

“I know this is an odd question, but why do you hate Maeve so much?”

“I don’t hate her,” she lied. “She’s a whore. Before she even joined, she was flirting with John. He was staring at her chest. And the clothes she was wearing.” She shivered. “I didn’t think anyone our age would consider wearing those.”

“Oh, Sera?” she asked, more words forming over her lips that she did not speak.

“Don’t call me that!” she yelled. Her hand reached forward before she stopped herself. That wouldn’t make her any better. “Only John can call me that.”

“You are aware that John is Joker?” she asked, barely giving any consideration to that sight might not know. She nodded. “So, you’re jealous of her?”

“No,” she responded, turning away with a deep heat on her cheeks, “She’s just the only girl who is a God tier now.”

“So, you’re jealous?” she asked again, staring at her with her bright red eyes.

“No!” she shouted, her eyes flooding open with red veins standing out in the sclera. Her arm flung forward as she leant back with the force, her nails brushing past her cheek and forming three white lines across her cheek.

Remi stood up, brushing the crises out of her shorts, and headed towards the door. “Well, bye then.”

When the door shut behind the pinkette that lacked the ribbon that day, she was left in silence. She flung her arms out like aeroplane wings on either side of her and fell backwards onto the duvet. Her head landed on the pillow and the air was pushed out of it with the force.

She could get her ability back. What would really be the consequences of that? She would be the strongest in the school again. She could be the Queen or Ace again.

John wouldn’t stay with that slut. He would be with her. He would do anything she said to do.

But would he still be around? Venus wanted his location and she shared some features with him. She had the same eye colour as him (she sometimes stared into those eyes in her dreams) and there were some other details in her face that were like his. She could be related to him. William had gone along with John’s lie. Anything could be going on.

Then there was Venus’s surname. Milla. The Millas were often talked about in history classes. They were nobles in medieval times and even married into the ex-Royal family at one point. 

They had powerful and impressive abilities in the past. They had always been God tiers in adulthood, though they weren’t often talked about. Just there.

Nowadays, she didn’t hear much of them. Or anything at all. They still had to exist but they avoided the eyes of the public. The last she knew of them was of the two who were her grandparents’ age. And dead.

She turned to the side and drew the duvet over her body. She would need to sleep on it.

Venus collapsed into the armchair by the fireplace, the warm aura hitting her face. She clutched at the collar of her black sweater, allowing the cold air to cool down the sweat.

The fire blazed in front of her, glowing orange and lighting up the room with its glow. The photos on the mantel place where shadowed over, smiling happy faces of children and a family of four framed in the darkness.

That hidden face in the photo frame was also around her neck on a gold chain. On the gold chain hung an oval ornament with a clasp on the top splitting the two halves.

Her hand reached u and clasped the gold chain. Then it traced along the edge and undid the clasp of her necklace.

The locket laid in her palm as she brought her hand down to her lap. Her finger flicked it open. 

‘For the Family’ was engraved on the empty side.

On the other side laid a photo of a girl in her early teens that was framed by glass. Her honey blonde hair fell down to her collarbone, curled to fall in beach waves and framed her heart shape face with a pointed chin. Her burning gold eyes glimmered as they stared up into the camera.

God, Juno. Her fingers clenched over the locket. Pulling back her wrist, she flung is across the room, it cracking as it hit the wall.

‘For the Family’. What will you think when your eldest’s body is found? What will you think when your only son is found dead, knowing that your daughter was found with the same injuries? Or should she do worse to him? And what should happened to her youngest?

It would be her fault anyway. She had started it. Ever since her eyes had flashed in front of her and claws with golden flames bursted out of her hands. The flames weren’t amber. And then there was the wind she had copied. 

She had ruined her life.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> 2051 words. 
> 
> I'm backing to posting on Friday and Monday evenings again.
> 
> Introduction of Venus. What do you think?


	24. Do You Agree?

_“Come on, Venus,” said the indigo haired girl who stood in front of her. Raven’s hair tumbled down both sides of her face in the twin bunches she had tied them in that day as she leant forward to peer at her with her and on the scarlet hem on her hip._

_Her eyes didn’t meet the blue ones. She stared at the scarlet collar of her blazer that had the white blouse beneath it. From the end of her skirt at about mid-thigh, her pale legs were bare and stretched out ‘till they reached the white ankle socks that were tucked into her black flats._

_“I don’t want to. You know why,” she replied, flinging her hair over the shoulder of her scarlet blazer._

_“But Venus,” she whined. A hot blush hit her cheeks as she remembered that Raven was picking stuff out of her locker and the corridor was full of students. “How do you not want to see this movie at the cinema?”_

_“I don’t want to,” she answered, stressing the words as they fell over her tongue again. “Why would I – the God tier Queen of the Strongest School in the region – want to see a movie about a group of mid-tiers finding their self-worth? I have a reputation to up keep,_ Raven _.”_

_She waved her hand to get the girl to dismiss the idea._

_“But you’re sister’s a mid-tier,” replied Raven, skipping a step of her as they walked through the student body. “You must have some respect for them.”_

_“I don’t.” She turned to her with boiling rage written on her face. “And she’s an elite-tier. Barely, but still.” Raven nodded as she took a gulp. “And don’t mention that I’m related Juno!”_

_She didn’t mean to yell that loud. The students would turn to her, mocking scorn on their faces. She would be ruined if they heard this conversation. If this ever got out._

“Maeve! How bad are you at waking up in the morning?” asked Remi, slamming her fist against the door as she shouted.

She blinked her eyes open to the sun peering through the gap that was left between the two pieces of fabric that was her curtains.

Her limbs ached. They were heavy, the muscles heaving before she could even do anything. She couldn’t move, struggling to move anything by an inch.

Heaving herself up to a sitting position, she yelled back: “Terrible!”

“Are you getting up now?” she questioned from behind the door.

“No, it’s Saturday.” She flopped back down onto the mattress and flicked her eyelids closed.

“It’s 11am,” she replied without opening her eyes to see more than the darkness.

“So? It’s Saturday,” she responded. She started falling back into sleep after the disturbance.

“Isen!” she yelled.

Maeve turned away and pulled the duvet over her head, muffling any further noise from her ears.

After a few seconds where she heard her heartbeat settle, she finally started drift again, but suddenly two cold hands grasped her hips. She was yanked back, the duvet falling off her body and pilling upon the sheet on the bed below her.

“Kingston!” she shouted, keeping her eyes shut. “Put me down!”

“Who’s Kingston?” he mouthed to Remi; Remi shrugged.

His hands travelled around her waist as her legs frashed about. He wrapped his arms around her, his chest pressing hard against her back. Then his arms slipped up, pressing on her breats.

“Kingston!” Her ankle contacted with the bone of his lower leg. There wasn’t enough force behind it to hurt anything but her ankle bone, it reverberating in the bone. “Put down your older sister. Stop holding me like this. It’s inappropriate.”

“I’m not Kingston,” he replied. She went limp in his arms once his voice reached her eyes before the muscles in her torso tightened. Her arms reached up towards him as her violet eyes flashed open.

“Isen.” She brightly smiled.

He let go of her and her feet hit the floor. She stumbled back a few steps and hit his chest. His hands pressed against her shoulders, stabilising her balance.

“Thank you,” she mumbled. She glanced at the floor as heat rushed to her cheeks. “I’m sorry for calling you my brother’s name.”

“Don’t worry. Boarding school takes a while to get used to,” he replied, his hand brushing along the muscles of her back.

She turned around to face him and gazed up into his glistening amber eyes. Her face became a further hot flush as her eyes travelled down to the muscles of his chest that were revealed by his t-shirt, which was lower cut than any school shirt.

“You’re easily distracted today,” he commented, bringing his hand up and tracing her jaw with his fingertips.

“So?” she answered. “I just woke up like five minutes ago. By Remi.” She grabbed his wrist and brought it down to thread her fingers through his. “But you can stay.”

She leant forward as she looked up at him.

“What are you trying to do, Maeve?” asked Remi. She still stood in the doorway with her hand on her hip.

“Meh, I’ll get changed then,” she responded, pushing against Isen’s chest. He took a step away from her as she turned away and walked towards the wardrobe.

Opening it up, her fingers brushed through the rack of clothes. She picked a piece and brought it out.

“Why are you still here?” she questioned. Isen still stood where she had left him. “I thought I said I was changing.”

“You asked me to stay,” he answered, staring at her as he stayed where she stood.

“Well, I’ve changed my mind,” she replied, glaring back. One of her hands found its place on her hip. “I thought that would be obvious when I said I was getting changed.”

“I guess so,” she said, shrugging it off.

He stepped forward and felt the thin material with a black and white cheetah pattern. “Are you really going to wear that?”

“Yes!” She pulled the small dress away from him, clutching it to her chest. “Don’t tell me what to wear! I’ve had enough of that already.”

“I wasn’t saying that,” he responded, throwing his hands up in surrender. “I was just concerned about the weather. It’s only April.”

“Remi was wearing shorts,” she retorted. She pulled out a tight black jumper and turned away from him once she closed the wardrobe. “Now leave.”

With a sigh, his footsteps thudded against the wooden floorboards and the door clicked shut behind him.

She sighed and moved to the draw to receive her underwear. Then she pulled her top off and clipped her bra on, pulling the woollen black short sleeved top over her head. She fiddled with the collar of her top but decided to keep it on. Then she pulled the short white dress with a black cheetah print over her head and it tightly fitted over her form. The thin spaghetti straps held the dress up by hanging over her shoulders.

Moving to the mirror, she fiddled with the strands of hair that fell and stuck out in every direction. She combed over the lilac strands and they became smooth flowing locks. As she continued the motion, it turned into silvery strands that waved down to her upper back, bangs falling into her eyes.

Pulling out a draw in her jewellery box, she pushed the diamond heart earrings into the pierced holes in her ears.

Then she walked out the door with her phone clutched in her hand. Remi, Blyke and Isen were commenting on a movie they were playing onth escreen and barely noticed her as she stepped out the doorway.

“Maeve, where are you going?” asked Remi as she peeked up over the sofa. “You woke up ten minutes ago.”

“I’m going over to my friend’s,” she replied, turning away from them.

When she shut the door behind her, she heard yelling from Remi but she ran down the corridor, charging down the stairs until she was breathing in the cool fresh air of the courtyard.

Without checking to see if anyone was staring at her, she headed straight for the boys’ dormitory.

“Hey, I believe Isen’s at Remi’s,” said Zeke, stepping in front of her from where he was walking along with two other boys. “He did write that article about you, right?”

“Shut up, Zeke!” she yelled back, and moved around him.

“But I’m the 7th strongest in the school and you’re the Queen. You may need my help,” he responded, keeping pace with her.

“No, I think you’re miscalculated that,” she replied, not taking her eyes off her route. His footsteps still rang in her ears as he continued to follow her, so her eyes flashed with a violet aura and energy rushed in her veins. Beneath her, her body vanished into the nothing.

She heard Zeke cry out and follow with a hiss of “Form manipulation.” She smirked.

Her path continued ahead of her as she walked with speed to the room. Then she passed through the door.

No one was in the hallway of the dorm, the kitchen and there was no sound throughout the room. Then she heard footsteps, not from the corridor outside, and heavy breathing.

“Who’s there?” asked John as he opened his door.

She released her ability and her body faded into appearance beneath her.

“Oh, Maeve,” he replied, taking a step to one side of the doorway. “Come in.”

Walking into the room, she took a seat on his bed and said, “You know, Zeke is the most annoying person in the year.”

“Yes,” he answered. He walked over and sat down next to her, the mattress dipping under their combined weight on the edge. “So, why did you come here?”

“I wanted to talk, of course.” She smiled at him. “You’ve heard of my fight with Remi?”

“You won, so you’re officially Queen now,” he replied.

“So now you will reveal your ability to everyone,” she commanded, turning to him and placing one hand on his knee.

“Why would I do that now, Maeve?” he asked. His fingers gripped her wrist and he pulled her forward. Then his hands travelled up and he hefted her into his lap.

“Because I will make you.”

She stared straight into his gold eyes as she placed both of her hands on his shoulders. His hands wrapped around her waist.

“How will you make me do that?” he asked back, lightly pressing his lips against the tip of her nose before pulling away.

“Well, there are already rumours floating about. No one recognised Joker’s ability and you would be the only student in the school who no one knows what your ability is, even though you claim to not have one,” she explained, swinging her leg around so she sat on the duvet next to him. “Plus, I think that someone who does know has a loose tongue.”

“It wouldn’t surprise me. Isen’s a two-faced piece of shit.”

After his words, she remained silent. Her heart raced in her chest as an icey distaste built up in her mouth. He didn’t know about her feelings for Isen, so his words meant nothing for her. He would probably kill her if he knew.

“In fact, I imagine he was the person who wrote that article about you,” he continued. “I recognise his writing style. I’m surprised you defeated Remi at 5.1.”

“I would have thought you knew that my level is far above 5.1, considering your ability,” she responded. “I’m a God-tier. That should be obvious to you. He wrote that article under pressure and didn’t have enough information to find out what my level was.”

“That’s odd. I thought he liked thoroughly researching the subject of his articles,” he replied, reaching his hand forward to trace over her right breast.

“As I said, he was under pressure. He didn’t want to write the article.”

His hand gripped her arms, digging in, and he pulled her back to his chest. Her face was stopped a centimetre from crashing into his chest – stopped by herself. Her heart thumped as she stared wide eyed at his muscular chest beneath his shirt.

“He’s trying to manipulate you,” he continued as his hand ran through her hair. “He thinks you’re hot and he doesn’t want to lose your favour. He likes to suck up to those above him.”

But he hasn’t shown any interest in her. It was her who had an interest in him. She had tried to sleep with that morning.

“Anyway, I will go along with your plan,” he announced. His hand continued to stroke her hair and her head, cuddling her to his body. “It’s what you want, but you will be my girlfriend.”

She nodded as her face remained white and hidden, her fingers clutching his shirt. Her heart drummed as it raced in her chest.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> 2153 words.
> 
> Golden Child on ao3 hit 1k hits last week and it on wattpad hit 1k views last weekend. It has also reached over 50,000 words long. Thank you for the support.
> 
> Sorry if the flashback from Venus was cut short. I was initially planning to write more, but the rest of the flashback didn't fit in with the timing so I cut it further short. Hopefully it provides more context though.
> 
> On another note, should I add ships in the tags that appear in the story, even if they are not the endgame of the fic.


	25. The Call

Maeve moans filled the air as he pinned her hands to the pillow above her herat. His teeth dug in along her collarbones, leaving bruises from the bites, and his hands traced over the bare skin of her hips. Her eyes were shut, occasionally fluttering with her long noir eyelashes.

His tongue trailed along the soft flesh of her breast. His fingers brushed underneath her plunge bra and then travelled to her back, unclipping the bra from around her body.

It was flung across the room, the metal clattering against the wall. His fingers pressed along the dipping flesh and brushed over her nipple. Her hips hit his body as they were raised. She gasped.

“Oh my God,” fell over her lips as she whined with every touch. His fingers traced back down to her hips, fiddling with the edge of her underwear.

He glanced back up to her face. The silver strands that fell in light waves, almost straight, across her face – framed it like a picture. What if her hair was magenta, threaded with gold? She would be even prettier.

He pressed his lips against her temple and she yanked his shirt down. His lips crashed into hers and every pore of her body was suddenly against his.

His tongue slipped between her lisp and his hands ran along her curves. He pulled her up to sitting and clutched her head in his hands. She wrapped her arms around his neck as her legs hooked around his hips.

“More,” she begged as he broke a part of stare at her again. Her hips thrusted into his hips again.

He stared at her violet eyes. Too purple; too pink. The most beautiful shade would be blue. A brilliant crystal blue. Not bright red.

“What can you do with your ability?” he asked, smiling at her so she didn’t suspect anything.

“Huh, what do you mean?” she questioned, tilting her head up at him. Her face was drained of blood.

“Can you shapeshift into someone else?” he asked, clutching her body to his chest.

“Yes, why?”

“Can you morph into Sera?”

“Yeah,” she replied without more than a raised a eyebrow.

Her hair shortened as it brightened into magenta from the roots. Gold patches then faded into areas of her hair and then, from the pupil outwards, her irises became that crystal blue. 

“I can’t confirm that it looks correct. I haven’t seen her with her clothes off.”

“it’s good enough.”

He held her around her waist as Maeve lowered herself back onto the mattress, her legs spread open with her soaked panties barely covering her.

He leaned back down onto her, kissing along her jaw line.

“You went with her short hair,” he commented as he broke off. A line of saliva connected his lips to her jaw, shimmering liquid in the light. He buried her fingers into the hair.

“I didn’t know she wore extensions until last night,” she replied, tilting her head back to leave it bare.

“What were you doing last night?” he asked before going in to kiss along her neck and collarbone again. Then his lips passed along between her breasts.

“I was having a sleepover with Remi at Elaine’s and Seraphina’s,” she explained, her voice tinted with her giddy smile. “Seraphina’s friend joined us later. We played ‘Truth of Dare’ and we kept asking Remi about Blyke. There was an interesting phone call.” She giggled, barely reacting to his kisses. “I need to ask her what his reaction was in the morning.”

She didn’t act like Sera. She was giggly and liked the girls’ drama. Sera never really had female friends when he was her friend. Her best friend.

It still felt like he was fucking Maeve.

“You’re bad at acting,” he told her, sitting up. He moved away, swivelling around, until his feet were touching the wooden floorboards, so he sat on the edge of the bed.

“Was I supposed to act?” she questioned. He flinched from the venom dripping from her voice. “Was I supposed to act during our intercourse? Because trust me, I can act. But I didn’t think this was a scene to put on. These were our own actions for our own desires, not something for others.”

“Really, Maeve?” he responded, turning his head towards her again. “There’s a reason your not in the acting club.”

She remained silent. She held her chin up high as she crossed her arms over her chest, clutching her breasts to cover her hard nipples. Bumps covered her arms.

“I get stage fright,” she answered defensively. “Plus the acting club consists of three people.”

“You don’t have to lie to yourself, Maeve.”

“It’s my own lack of confidence that is my downfall in that area,” she responded through her teeth. She stood up and walked across the room, picking up her bra. 

The bra was set back into place as she released the form to fill the cups again.

“I’m heading back,” she said, turning her back to him. Her fingers traced across her dress as she pulled it back over her chest. Then she found her sweatshirt and stared at it blankly before pulling it on too. “I don’t want to be insulted any further today.”

“Well, you will kiss me in the cafeteria on Monday,” he responded, standing up too. 

“Is that an order?” she questioned, raising an eyebrow at him.

“You will find Joker after you if you don’t,” he replied, smirking. “And if you don’t agree, I won’t reveal my ability.”

“Then fine!” she answered. She walked up to the door before turning to face him again. “I’ll do that.”

“Don’t sound so bitter about it. We’re practically dating.”

“Right. You keep telling yourself that.”

She walked out the door and both doors bang shut behind her.

“Hi, Seraphina,” she said out of sight before she vanished out of his earshot. 

Fuck, he needed to clean up the room. Remembering the last time they had talked, her emotions were out of control.

“Hello,” Seraphina greeted as she leant in the doorway of the opened door.

“Why are you here?” he asked back. Standing up, he walked over to her. “You could have texted me that you were coming.”

“What? Did you not want me to walk in on you and Maeve having sex.” She laughed. She took another step towards him. “Don’t deny it. Every time she’s around, you are checking her out. She was pretty flustered when I brought it up yesterday.”

“What did you say?”

He had only known Maeve for about a week and a half, but already he understood that she had trigger words that could send her into a catatonic state. He didn’t know how he had learnt it because she hadn’t had any reaction like that and she definitely hadn’t told him that directly. He didn’t even know what words it was. 

“I just asked what boys she had slept with and then to show us her texts with you when she refused to tell us that.” She shrugged it off.

“But those were private texts.”

“So?” She shifted her shoulders. “Remi allowed her to leave before she could complete the dare. Ruined the game.”

A sudden wave of relief washed over him. Some of his hate for Remi dissipated into nothing. Maybe her words had spoken true. She did have higher values than most.

“Anyway, delete her number!” Seraphina ordered as she brought a finger to his neck, the sharp nail scratching along his throat.

“No,” he replied. “She’s the Queen.”

“So? You never wanted to be the King anyway.”

“I need to keep her number,” he responded, snarling as she reached forward. Her hand travelled to his back pocket, tapping his butt only to find both pockets empty.

“What did you do with your phone?” she asked, her voice icy cold as she glared. Her nail brushed along his skin. “Where did you put it?”

“It’s my phone,” he replied. He glanced to the bed cabinet where his new phone laid. Still there; still obvious.

“Oh, there it is,” she said. She followed his line of sight and walked over. Her hand clasped around it and brought it up to her face.

“Don’t delete it!” he shouted. He ran over to her, barely building up speed over the short distance.

“Why shouldn’t I?” she questioned, showing him the screen. She had selected it with the delete button nearby.

His heart raced.

“She’s my girlfriend.”

She stared up at him with her wide blue eyes. They crystal had underlying cracks that were forming and deepening.

Her hand was pulled back before she released it. The phone flew through, soaring towards the ceiling until it started arching down. It crashed into the curb on the wall, the screen audibly shattering.

“I got that only a few days ago!” he yelled.

He rushed over only to discover that the screen was completely ruined. Small glass shards were on the floor – scattered around the now unrecognisable cuboid. Slices were cut off at the corner.

“Why her?!!” she screamed. Red veins traced through her wide eyes.

“She doesn’t shout at me randomly!”

“This is not random,” she hissed, inches away from his face.

“This is no longer about me keeping secrets – which, by the way, had nothing to do with you – but your instead angry at Maeve, who does not deserve this as well,” he retorted, taking a step back from her. His heart beat slowed.

“Fine, then!”

She stomped off, turning away with a scoff. He did not attempt to stop her when she slammed the door shut behind her.

A breath was released when the other door’s slam rang inside his ears. 

Why was she so angry? At Maeve? It didn’t make any sense. He didn’t want her to know about his ability in fear of her reaction, but she had left him anyway. She hadn’t trusted him to even get a reason out of him. On the other hand, Maeve had stayed by him. And she was angry at her…

Seraphina curled up on her bed, her knees drawn to her chin. Her arms wrapped around her legs, her knuckles white.

How could he? Why was he bias to her? Didn’t she do more for him? Maeve didn’t even like him that way. She only went along with his desires for her own selfish reasons: she didn’t care about him.

The dorm room was filled with complete silence. That part set off a bubbly feeling in her heart. Elaine wasn’t nearby; she was out. For how long? Would she even greet her when she returned?

So, would it matter now if she called Venus? Miss Milla? She probably shouldn’t be thinking about her relationship status. It didn’t matter.

But it wouldn’t matter if she called Venus now? It wouldn’t matter because John didn’t care about her at all, so she wouldn’t care what happened to him. She doubted it would be a bad thing – likely it was a family member getting in contact. It would make sense to her that his family might have been separated from his mother’s side.

The card was still on her bedside cabinet. It’s shining white surface was a tempting price that drew her attention by the filtering sunlight through the blinds that then glanced off it.

It wasn’t appropriate to call now. She had not planned to call her this soon – not the day after their first communication.

But she had to call her. Every day without her ability was pushing her closer to the cliff’s edge.

Why did it have to be her? Couldn’t it be anyone else in the school? Someone who was less appreciative of their ability? Or maybe she hadn’t been appreciative enough of her own ability.

A tear rolled down her cheek.

She wanted it back.

Her fingers crawled over and clutched the small card in her fingers. Pulling her phone out of her pocket, she dialled the number that was imprinted in the curly black ink on the card.

She brought her phone up to her ear as the ringing rang through the air.

“Hello?” a voice questioned after the third ring. Her voice.

“It’s Seraphina,” she responded. She removed the motion from her voice. She didn’t want her to find out anything extra.

“This is Venus,” the lady replied. Her voice radiated shock. “So you have decided to agree then.”

“Yes,” she answered. Her heart thumped in her chest.

“Then meet me in the location we met the other day tonight. I’ll bring the antidote and you tell me his location then,” the woman ordered. Seraphina impulsively nodded.

“Okay,” she replied before hanging up.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> 2115 words. 
> 
> Thank you for reading this chapter.
> 
> I asked this question last chapter, but it might be more appropriate on this chapter. Should I add tags for the ships that appear in this book even if they aren't endgame of the book?
> 
> Please comment your thoughts on the chapter. 


	26. The Mall

Maeve’s hand gripped the door handle. She hesitated. Would they notice anything? No, they couldn’t. How would they be able to tell?

Stepping into the room, she slipped past the group, who now looked to be watching a horror movie. She guessed it from the dark scene that was currently being performed on the screen.

She was almost to the door of her bedroom when one of them called out, “Maeve, you’re back!”

Isen came up to her at a speed that didn’t allow her to get into her room. Even then, she attempted to escape into her room, but his hand clamped around her wrist. 

“Where are you going? Weren’t you wearing that jumper underneath before?” he questioned, his hand hesitantly reaching forward.

She couldn’t look at him. She did not want to lie to him, but she couldn’t tell him. She still wanted him by her side. She wanted to be by his side.

A cold tear fell down her cheek. It tingled.

“You’re crying…”

She was about to reply, ‘it doesn’t matter’, but instead her fingers wrapped around his own wrist from where he gripped her wrist. Opening the door, she dragged him into the room and shut the door behind them.

“Are you okay?” he asked her after a pause. He stared at her.

“No.”

She collapsed into his arms, who barely was prepared for her to fall. She buried her head into his chest. Her fingers clinged to his t-shirt.

His arms wrapped around her and pulled her closer to his body as his hand stroked through her hair. She whimpered another sob as she continued to blur out the world to remain in his comforting arms. She’d only ever want him.

“What happened?” he asked after her sobs quietened down and vanished with his fingers running through her silky curtain of silver hair. The depressed hole in her heart seemed to shrink only to widen further with the sudden constant realisation of the situation. “Your… Who did you see?”

“It doesn’t matter.” She pulled her head back to look up into his amber eyes, but just as quickly hid again in his hard muscular chest. A flush pink heat covered her cheeks. “You’ll see who on Monday anyway.”

“Why would I see who on Monday?” he questioned as he continued to support her in his arms. “You can tell me.”

“I made a deal I can’t get out of…” she started only to drag off her words. She couldn’t tell him who. He hated John and if he had any clue of what went down when they had a ‘conversation’, he would think she was a whore. He would leave her.

She was romantically involved with two guys at once.

She didn’t want to be though. If she and John were just friends, it would be fine. She never thought of him excessively in that light until a few days ago. But he did have a six pack…

Isen was any girl’s dream guy. His smile was heart-warming and her heart fluttered every time he looked at her. His words were calming and he always knew how to make her laugh. He was so funny. But he had…

She flinched away from his touch, taking a step backwards. His amber eyes stared at her wide eyed.

“Are you okay?” he asked. His fingers reached forward from where she had yanked her wrist away from. “Did I do something?”

“You… wrote… that.” She sobbed in between each word.

“I…” he hesitated. His amber eyes stared at her with his eyebrows furrowed. She could imagine: she’s still going on about this; it doesn’t matter, does it?

But of course, it mattered. Everyone knew now. And it was him who told everyone. More tingling tears fell down her cheeks.

“You,” he started up again. He refused to look her in the eyes. “Still care about that.”

“Why wouldn’t I?” she responded, her words quickly flying. 

“I thought you forage me for it,” he replied back, his words barely above a whisper.

“‘Forgave’ – she put the word in quotation marks – “not forget.”

He sighed. His body relaxed as he gave up.

“What could I do for you to forgive me?” he asked.

“I don’t know.”

“What if I take you to the mall?” he offered after a pause to think.

“The mall!” A large smile overtook her face. Suddenly, her previous grudges vansiehd and she jumped forward. He caught her in his arms.

“Yes?” he responded; the word almost choked out in shock of her sudden mood swing. 

“Ok, I’ll get changed,” she replied, turning away and walking towards the wardrobe.

“But you were insistent on wearing that this morning,” he answered. His amber eyes were wide as she pulled her top off over her head.

“I changed my mind,” she spat back.

She pulled the dress over her head and threw it on the bed along with the dark sweater. When she turned around, her heart thumped as her eyes met amber.

“Why are you still here?” she yelled. Her arms immediately wrapped around her chest to cover the skin and her larger than average bust.

“You didn’t say to leave,” he responded, his face quickly flushing bright red.

“I thought me getting change would be clear that I didn’t want you in the room to see,” she answered, huffing as she turned back to face the clothes. “I’m a girl and you’re a boy after all.”

“You should have said,” he mumbled back, hanging his head low as he left the room and the door clicked shut behind him.

She pulled out one of the t-shirts that her mother had allowed her to have (one that was designed to be comfortable instead of sexy unlike the majority of clothes her mother allowed, not to say her mother didn’t entirely not allow t-shirts) and grabbed a pair of jean shorts.

Pulling the light blue t-shirt over her head, it fell baggy over her form. Then she slipped into the somewhat loose jean shorts that circled down her thighs until they reached just below mid-thigh – cuffed at the end. The top was tucked into the shorts so the buckles at the front where on show. When she glanced in the mirror, the words reflected on the top were ‘Does Anybody Have A Map?’ that were stamped in white, the dark blue and the final last three words were in black. Passing a hand along the silver locks, it faded into its lilac with a pink hue and the waves flatter, so there were only a few large waves. Then she grabbed a hair tie off the desk and tied the front strands back so they didn’t fall in her face and shortened the overall length of her hair so that it reached just below her shoulder blades.

After a beat, she stepped out the room to where Isen was standing in wait. His mouth fell open as his eyes scanned her up and down, causing her face to heat up as her heart skipped a beat.

She was about to say something when he responded, “You changed your hair colour.”

“Yeah, I didn’t like the silver,” she replied, twisting a strand around her finger as she placed her weight on one leg.

He nodded with a smile and she flashed one back before walking a head of him to the kitchen. 

“Are you going to the mall?” asked Remi as she bounced in front of her, lightning blazing around her before fading into nothing.

“Yes, why?” she responded, taking a startled step back.

“Blyke,” she called. She slightly turned towards the sofa. “Do you want to go the Mall with Maeve and Isen?”

“Okay,” she heard Blyke respond and he soon appeared in her eyeline.

“This was not what I had in mind,” she whispered to Isen so that Remi and Blyke couldn’t hear. Isen pretended he hadn’t heard her, but his eyes avoiding her told her that he had heard her. Though, her blood kept steaming as she thought of his face after the pinkette’s words – relieved. Why did he look like that? She wasn’t going to hurt him.

Remi’s hand clasped around her wrist and pulled her along as she made her affirmative walk towards the door. Her ankles dragged along the wooden floorboards as she locked up.

“Come on.” She flashed a grin at her. “It’s going to be fun. Besides you were excited a few days ago.”

“Okay.” She sighed in response and headed over to her shoes. They were a style of trainers that didn’t require doing up the laces, so she was taking a step out of the door with Remi a few seconds later.

Soon, she found herself at the mall with Remi skipping along ahead of her and the two boys somewhere behind them, walking at their own more steady pace.

“Have you been here before?” asked Remi as she spun back to face her. Her pastel pink hair flew around her and one of her blue bows loops floated temporarily above her head. 

“Yes, my dad took me,” she replied, smiling nervously.

“Oh, do you parents live nearby?” she asked back. She turned around to fall into step with her.

“My dad does, but my mum lives in New Bostin with my siblings,” she answered. She glanced around the shop names on the first floor. Nothing really stood out and she didn’t want to go clothes shopping.

“Oh, yeah. You mentioned that before,” she replied. Her fingers laced thorugh her own and tugged her along to one of the nearby shops. 

“It was more than mentioned,” she mumbled to the side bitterlly.

“You went to New Bostin?” questioned a voice behind that she knew as Isen’s. She spun on the ball of her foot and found that Isen had stopped in his step. Blyke stood hesitantly about a metre ahead of him, attempting to face both of them.

“Yes, why?” she responded. Even Remi’s grip on her hand had relaxed as they all stood still.

“Oh, I was just surprised,” he replied. He walked up to the two and Blyke soon followed him.

“Does New Bostin have a lot of God-tiers?” Blyke asked over Remi was leading them to the shop again.

“No,” she answered. “Though I think there was an increase in concentration of high-tiers our age recently.”

“How do you know that?” asked Remi as she passed a short dress into her hands. Great, they had gone into a clothes shop.

“NBG jumped from some uncountable place to the third most powerful school in the region in the last few years.” She shrugged. “I think they have more high-tiers than normal.”

“Oh, okay.” Remi responded, passing another sheet of clothing into her arms.

“Why do you keep giving me clothes?” Maeve asked a few minutes later once she had passed her three more sets of clothes and the conversation between Isen and Blyke had slowed down.

“You’re going to try them on.”

She coughed into her hand in surprise.

“Pardon.”

“I wanted your opinion on clothes,” she answered. Remi stared at her white faced and frozen. “She’s obsessive with me and my sister looking… ‘feminine’. She used to throw out clothes that didn’t fit her requirements – basically comfortable clothes.”

“Sorry, I had no clue,” she replied, forcing her voice above a whisper.

“Are all God-tiers crazy in some way?” Blyke asked, not showing any sympathy in his voice.

Maeve paused and looked at him with a raised eyebrow. Violet met gold. “My mum’s a mid-tier.”

“I didn’t see that coming,” Blyke replied.

“You’re a God-tier though?” Isen questioned. He took a step to stand next to her.

“My dad’s a God-tier,” she answered. “I inherited it from him.” She turned to Remi. “Do you want to try on the clothes now?”

“Yeah, okay." Remi lead them to the womens’ changing room, following the signs on the ceiling, and found that there were only two unisex changing rooms.

Remi went behind one of the scarlet curtains and Maeve paused before going behind another.

Quickly, she chaned into one of the dresses that Remi had given her. She pulled the white lace dress over her lilac hair and it reached down to mid-thigh. Her hands flattered the skirt down.

She found Isen’s eyes locked on her when she stepped out.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> 2061 words.
> 
> Thank you for reading. I know this is earlier than normal. Please give your thoughts in the comments.
> 
> I'm thinking of adding explanations of whats happened in the chapters about every ten chapters or so to remind readers of whats happened so far. What do you think?
> 
> I'm also answering any questions in this chapter's comments. Please comment any questions you have. 


	27. It's a Date

Isen’s eyes caught on the white lace dress that only reached down to mid-thigh. The skirt fluttered out in several layers, a thin petticoat underneath to cover the skin with solid white. It continued up until just over her bust. The wavy and loose material of the thin straps acted as sleeves and were basically transparent.

The dress plunged from the straps until three quarters of the way between her breasts, a shadow of black visible underneath. A bow of the same white shades was tied around her waist. More layers were ruffles decorated across the bust line.

“I like this dress,” she commented after silence had filled his ears for half a minute. A pause of silence. She was smirking confidently at him.

His heart thumped. He didn’t want to die.

Suddenly, the metal on the curtains scrapped against its railing as Remi drew it back. It revealed her standing in the picked out clothes: a white t-shirt made of a sweater-like material with lines going down vertically across the cream and black jeans.

“What do you think?” she asked, moving to show off the clothes.

Isen glanced to his side to see Blyke’s face slowly gaining extra colour. His eyes were too low to be on Remi’s face.

“Doesn’t really suit you,” Maeve said, scanning over Remi’s cltohes with a critical eye.

Isen didn’t want to admit it, but he had to agree.

“Oh, I see where you come from,” Remi stated, looking down at her clothes. “Though you seem fairly confident with yours.

“I like it,” she replied, holding her hand up to her chest. Her smile was sweet on her pretty pink lips. Kissable. He had to mentally shake his head.

“It looks good on you,” she said, an edge of bitterness in her voice. “You look good in anything.”

“I know,” Maeve responded with cheek. Her smirk stayed at full force on her lips.

Why would Remi be jealous of Maeve? At least, he read that she was jealous. Appearance didn’t matter.

“I guess you always are confident with your body because you can change it at your will,” Remi continued, speaking slower than usual as she rolled the carefully chosen words over her tongue.

Maeve’s face flushed red and her knuckles turned white in her fist clenched at her side. She hid it from Remi’s view.

“This my natural body,” she responded, holding her hand flat to her chest in defence. The deep red of her cheeks was slowly growing darker as Remi slowly nodded, more as a second thought than actually believing it.

“You’re making me believe you less,” Remi replied before turning over and drawing the curtain back over to look at the other selected clothes.

“Really?” she huffed and then went back into her own changing room.

Isen pulled out his phone and flicked through the webpages that he had opened until he reached a new one.

“Do you want to watch a movie?” he asked once he selected the mall’s cinema’s page.

Blyke peered over his shoulder to glance at the list. “I like the sound of that movie. Jumanji.”

“It’s on in about half an hour too.”

“Jumanji!”

Maeve jumped out of the curtain back in her shorts and ‘Dear Evan Hanson’ shirt. She sprung next to Isen, leaning her cheek against his shoulder.

“I’ve been wanting to see that movie.”

“I swear you had more clothes,” Blyke commented as he glanced at her and her clothes.

She shook her head in response, making a ‘nah’ sound.

Remi’s curtain drew back with a scrape of metal. A white blouse hung low over her chest with two spaghetti straps holding it up. It was tucked into a tight pair of dark blue jeans with a buckle and she had paired it with a long light pink cardigan.

“That looks better,” Maeve said. She smiled.

“I thought so,” Remi replied before sighing briefly of her. “You’re not changing into anything else.”

“I didn’t really like any of the other outfits.” She avoided Remi’s eyes – burning a hole into the floor.

“Oh, I’ll just return the rest of the clothes then,” Remi said, her voice slowly becoming quieter as she spoke.

“You don’t have to do that if you don’t want to,” Maeve replied. She didn’t want to stay in this shop of any other clothing shops any longer, but she hated the possible overwhelming guilt from ruining someone else’s plans.

“No, it’s fine,” Remi responded, waving if off as she walked up to Blyke. “I’ll go with Seraphina tomorrow.”

Maeve removed the slight weight from his shoulder and nodded, her face slightly flushed. He could still feel her arm against his.

“Anyway, do you want to see one of the best shops in this place?” asked Remi as she held her selected clothes slung over her arm and walked up to the counter.

“Yeah,” Maeve replied. She was hesitant, he could tell. “What is it?”

“You’ll see.” Remi smirked as she picked up her new paper bag off the counter and Maeve replaced it with her own dress. The transaction was soon completed and they headed out the door.

Her violet eyes nervously glanced up at Isen as she fell into step besides him. Her hand brushed against his and without warning she threaded her fingers through his.

His eyes widened, staring at the lilac haired girl. A nervous smile was painted on her lips.

Her cheeks glowed red. As soon as she noticed his gaze, she glanced at the floor.

“You’re…” He hesitated. Heat rushed to his cheeks as her violet eyes looked back up at him. Did she like him?

She glanced away again, quickly letting go. Briskly, she wlaked to Remi’s side, the burning heat flushing red in her cheeks. Remi’s smile brightened as she glanced to look at Maeve and noticed that she was walking closer to her only fro a frown to appear on her eyebrows when her eyes gaze saw him.

She leant down to whisper in the lilac’s ear. Her face turned closer to the shade of Blyke’s hair than it already was.

His heart thumped.

What was she doing?

“It’s that shop we’re going too?” Blyke asked. He walked closer to him, keeping his voice so low so Remi wouldn’t hear.

“It’s a good shop,” he responded.

“What is the shop?” Maeve questioned. Her violet eyes glimmered as she glanced over at him. A small smile was lifted on her lips as her eye contact with him remained.

“You’ll like it,” Remi replied. Her hand grasped Maeve’s and pulled her forward.

Quickly, they came up to the shop at the very end of the mall. It was seemingly a small shop, but it stretched out around the corner out of view.

The walls were lined with shelves that contained many assortments of items: pens, notebooks, shirts, hoodies, posters and other such items.

A sign shimmered above the glass on either side of the archway. Silver letters hone on the sgin, saying the name: ‘The Artifacts’.

“Are those Harry Potter wands?” asked Maeve, her voice dazed. Remi nodded.

Smiling up at Isen, her fingers nervously trembled as she reached forward to his hand. The other two didn’t notice as she clasped his hand in hers.

He stepped forward with her, acting so they didn’t notice the hand holding. Blyke wouldn’t let it end.

Maeve’s eyes passed along the many boxes with the names of the characters.

“Wow, I had no clue a store like this existed here,” she said, almost mumbling under her breath. “I own a Luna Lovegood wand.”

“You do?”

Was this Maeve’s favour from him? She wanted to date him? She kept hodling his hand and the way she smiled at him…

“Yeah, do you have any of the wands?” she asked, looking up and continually to smile at him from where she stood.

“No,” he answered. He looked down to where she showed him a wand inside a grey box. Smooth red brown wood laid on the cushion of grey with the wood’s handle end as an elongated tulip that was unusually thin. A ring circled at the ended at the base of the tulip and the wand widened an eight down from it before narrowing down to the point of the wand. “Is it nice?”

“Yeah. She was my favourite colour.” She placed the lid on the box and it went back on the shelf.

She smiled at him and looked up. Silence enveloped them as she continued to stare up at him expectantly.

He glanced away from her. If he was going to have to entertain her, he hadn’t expected her to care about his opinion. She was a God-tier; why did she care about him?

“What else do you want to see?” he asked. But if he could entertain her, she would forgive him. He wouldn’t piss her off. That’s how it worked.

“Well, I was wondering what you would want to see?” she replied. His heart thumped. “There are two of us afterall.”

“Oh, right?” There was a fluttering in his stomach as he slowly took his first step in one direction. There he sped up his walk as his bones felt like freezing up.

A shelf in one corner of the shop held a bunch of identical pens, posters and shirts along with books, some clearly used but also had older versions of the book covers.

“Percy Jackson,” she said, her violet eyes scanning over the collection. “It’s been years since I read them.”

“Who was your favourite character?” he asked. He picked up one of the pens and looked over the make.

“Hazel Levesque.” She glanced at her shoes from where she stood next to him. “I like drawing. I found her relatable. Who’s your favourite character?”

“Percy Jackson.” Heat rushed to his face as he remembered why. “I guess I wanted to be him. I mean, it’s not like he had the best life, but still, he became the hero.”

“He was a good person. It’s what defined him as a character,” he replied. “That and how he slowly no longer wanted to participate in every war that people tried to drag him into. I kind of understand that and why one wouldn’t want to be involved in everything.”

“You do?” he questioned before thinking. It wasn’t heavily surprising when he thought about it. “But you’re a God-tier?” She had no reason to fear others, though, unlike him. She was at the top. “You don’t have a reason to fear others.”

“Tiers isn’t everything,” she answered. “It isn’t someone’s personality and it’s just a skill someone has. It doesn’t change the fear.”

“But no one can hurt you,” he replied.

He placed the pen back down in the box. It was bad quality anyway. Unlike many other pens he owned, he only glanced at it for tis significance. It was cheap anyway.

“I…” She took a step towards him. “I… Why me?”

Her fingers gripped his shirt and her forehead hit his shoulder. Her tears soaked through his t-shirt where they landed and touched his skin.

“It’s okay,” he whispered int other ear as his arms wrapped around her. he rubbed a circle across her upper back.

Oddly quick, she took a gulp of breath and stopped her sobs. She stepped back and her eyes were barely red. She had silent herself, almost pretended so like it never happened. She moved out of his arms and walked away a few steps.

  
She remained silent for a second as she went to look at some of the other items in the shop.

After a few beats, she turned back to Isen with a small smile on her face. It almost hid the regret in her face.

He wanted to pull her closer to him.

“I would like to do this again,” she stated. She took another deep breath. “But without –” she glanced to the side where Blyke and Remi stood together, paying no attention to them – “others tagging along.”

“Oh.” Heat rushed to his face. “I’m free tomorrow.”

“Okay.”

A large smile took over her face as she grinned. Her eyes shone.

“It’s a date.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> 2032 words.
> 
> The summary of previous chapters isn't going to be available as it wasn't extremely long and wouldn't save on one platform that I post this on.
> 
> I'm going back to one upload a week soon. I've had writers block this week and started writing a plan for a Ghoul au of unOrdinary as apparently that's the only thing I was productive in writing instead of staring at the page for hours. Please give your opinion on the idea.
> 
> I'm sorry if Blyke and Isen have been out of character in the past two chapters. It was rather difficult to write those two chapters. 
> 
> I'll hope to see you for the next chapter on Monday. Thank you for reading.


	28. The Liar

A bag was hung over Remi’s shoulder as she walked along the pavement next to Blyke. He kept glancing around and she could hear his heart racing in his chest.

She reached out with her hand and looped her fingers into his. Almost immediately, his breathing calmed and a sudden wave of safeness walked over her.

“The only rule we’re breaking is curfew,” she told him. It was true. They weren’t vigilanting this time.

“It’s almost midnight,” he whispered back. He had a point. Light was limited; there was little people out.

“We’re both high tiers though,” she replied. They could defend themselves and they’re stronger than most. Wasn’t it mid tiers who were responsible for the most crime? They could take them on.

“We’re currently in a high tier district,” he explained. “If someone is going to try to jump us, they are going to be prepared for that.”

In her heart, she had always known that that was what he had meant. Alana had died that last night of their goal. The killer had been a high tier – a God tier. 

No one was safe.

And Rei was dead. Now Mary was dead too.

The news had ran over the screen that evening. It reported on another murder. But this one was different.

The girl – no, the woman – did not wear a mask. A mask hadn’t been removed either. She wore nothing sensible for the possibility that she was a vigilante and something had happened to her mask.

However, still, her injuries were consistent with the victims of Ember. Stabs wounds and burns. 

And the reporter had clarified that her known ability did not match up with any of the known vigilantes. Her heart had lurched when she saw her name on the list: X-Rei.

They were still out for her. She was a significant superhero now. 

She didn’t want to be. She didn’t want to die. There was the school and Maeve would need support. Seraphina had mentioned her sleeping with John the previous night. She could be in over her head with something.

Back to Mary.

In fact, it was said that her own injuries looked to have been caused by her own ability. Except, the injuries were inflicted by a different party.

They called for any witnesses to come forward. Particularly, for her sister. Mary had been looking after her younger sister at the time that she went out – with her! Her mum had stated to the authorities that they had gone out for a walk. She hadn’t realised they hadn’t come home until the following morning.

The authorities hadn’t found the young girl, Ella Doe, yet. Ella Athena Doe. She wished they had shown a picture of her on the news. The crime had happened somewhere near where they were going.

Blyke had pointed out that both their surnames were ‘Doe’. Though, the connction hadn’t been confirmed by the News Reporter (nor the authorities). ‘Doe’ was also the surname held by ‘W.H.Doe’, the author of ‘UnOrdinary’. ‘UnOrdinary’ was the main cause of vigilantes in the beginning due to its initial message. Now, though, many hadn’t read it.

Therefore, there was a possibility that ‘Mary Olive Doe’ was related to ‘W.H.Doe’. She would most likely be his daughter.

So, Ember had struck out at the author of ‘UnOrdinary’ more directly than causing his book to get banned by killing his daughter. Maybe also kidnapping his other daughter.

They hadn’t even confirmed the age of the missing girl.

But she had known Mary. She was the Queen of Wellston before Seraphina. Then the Jack before her.

She was a God tier. She was powerful. She was terrifying.

She was also fairly certain that she had had a thing for Rei. Quite a few times she had come over to their house with Rei and she had never seen someone so clingy. Rei had been oblivious to it.

It was hard to believe she was gone. That she had died from an attack. That someone had overpowered someone as strong as her.

“Hey, it’s okay,” Blyke whispered in her ear. His arm wrapped over her shoulders and he brought her closer to him. She continued to walk in the direction he directed her in. “We’re at the train station.”

They scanned the pre-purchased tickets through the machines and soon were boarding the arriving train.

The train was mostly empty at the time of the night and they were able to find two of the seats against the wall of the train away from the other passengers. She leant her head against his shoulder and watched as he scrolled through his phone.

At one point, she glanced up and thought she saw a magenta head but it was gone when she looked again a second later.

Soon, they arrived. Blyke’s hand clasped around hers and pulled her close to his body heat.

It was cold out.

The bitter tunnelling wind stabbed through her hoodie. 

The tall double door was opened a second before she knocked on the door and Elsie smirked form the other side.

She almost swore that she was taller but the way one held themselves did affect the illusion of the space they took up in the room.

“Are you sure you’re not a couple?” the girl asked, her words dripping in sarcasm. She almost laughed but instead she silenced the internal rumble. 

“Yes,” she responded. Her heat thundered in her ears when Blyke remained silent.

In the quiet, she turned around. Her dark brown hair flowed around her head. The waves of her hair curled in the wind into its regular curls.

Remi stepped into the warehouse and Blyke closed the door behind them, the wall clashing.

“What do you want to do?” she asked, smiling from where she now leaned against the pillar.

“The usual,” Blyke replied. He casually walked to one side of the warehouse.

“You two making out?” she sighed to herself.

“Beg your pardon?” Remi questioned. She walked up to her in a flash and pulled her arm back.

In the rush of the movement, a shattered force trembled through her arm. It never made contact. Instead, Elsie’s fingers clasped tightly around her wrist – the knuckles white.

“Why did you attempt to hit me?”

Her fingers tightened their grip. Her hair flowed around her, not a single strand falling in her face, like a wind blowing directly in her face. And her black aura flushed around her dark brown eyes.

John. Her wide eyes, clenched teeth, furrowed eyebrows. It was just like John.

“What the hell is going on?”

Seraphina nervously smiled as she took the injection out of the box. Her heart thumped in her ears.

Venus had been relatively calm about it. Took the information without any question, but the look she gave her. If she at all had lied, she would regret it.

She was warned: it wouldn’t come back immediately.

It could take minutes to hours. Like the first time. It had taken hours for it to fully go. Wouldn’t that mean it wouldn’t be back immediately?

She pierced the skin of her neck with the sharp point of the needle and pushed the end of the injection.

Fear pulsed through her veins. What if she did something? What if she hit an artery? She hadn’t done this in front of a mirror. At least she didn’t have a fear of injections.

But it was over. The injection was empty. The injection was complete.

She placed it onto the pale gold wood of her bedside table with a clunk of the glass.

Standing up, she stretched up to the ceiling, pushing up on her tiptoes. Then she searched around the room with her eyes and walked up to the wide window with a wide white wooden frame. She drew the pale lilac curtain back and gazed out the window.

What was Remi doing? She was with Blyke, but that would be an odd location for a date (or otherwise). It was a Saturday and heading quickly towards midnight: they had a lot of other time before now and tomorrow. And if they did just go out to make out, they both had their dorm rooms. Though, both now did have roommates.

In a snap decision, she burst out the door. She pulled the coat over her shoulders and stuffed her feet in to her boots. Then she pushed the door open, locked it behind her with a click and ran down the corridor.

If she were to catch up to them, to see where they went, she needed to run quicker. She attempted to activate her ability. There was no mirror around; she didn’t know if it worked. Certainly, she wasn’t a high tier, let alone a God-tier, but hopefully she had speed. That had been her passive afterwards.

She was outside the building in seconds (at least it felt like it) and Remi’s pink peach hair was fluttering behind her as she ducked through the hole in the fence. It was past curfew.

Silently, she followed. They couldn’t spot her – hear her – so she had to remain a certain distance behind them.

Remi and Blyke talked but she couldn’t hear. Though, she smirked at the idea it was flirting. Remi was clinging very close to Blyke’s body.

Soon, they arrived at the train station. Her blood froze as a moment of panic came over her. Blyke and Remi had planned this. They had their tickets ready – pre-payed; pre-purchased; on hand; but she didn’t have one ready and she didn’t know at all where they are going.

However, she did have a train pass. Her parents had brought and gave her it for travelling for Turf Wars. It went to any location that was reasonable that she required and it was… in this coat.

Rushing, she pulled out a card. It was the pass at a glance. She scanned it through, spotted the two in a window of the train and went onto that train.

She held one of the bars that was vertical and scrolled through her phone.

Her heart fluttered at the thought that she may have actually caught them on a date. Who leant on their friend like that?

At one point, Remi spotted her, but it was at a glance. Before she looked back up in her shock, she moved to one of the seats a few metres down.

Then the two left the train. She moved quickly to follow and soon all three were walking through a neighbourhood. She had never seen a neighbourhood like this. The streets were silently empty, abandoned completely, and the houses were narrow, tiny.

Remi and Blyke stopped outside of a warehouse. It was the only large building for miles around (at least several stories instead of two). There were lights on inside and the silhouette of a girl opened the door.

She had almost thought they were vigilantes until then.

When the door closed, she walked up to it. She doubted it was locked. There had been no click of a locking door. It opened when she pushed at the door handle.

Apparently, Remi had fallen into an argument with the girl. A brunette girl.

She clutched Remi’s wrist inches away from her face. Her face was pulled into a snarl. It reminded her of John.

“What the hell is going on?” she cried out, rushing over to the two. She pushed the two a part and Remi stumbled back a few steps. The other girl had been leaving against a pillar.

“Err, Seraphina,” Blyke said, walking forward from where he had stood at one side of the wide warehouse hall. He was hesitant as he faced her: nervous.

“I followed you two out here and now I find this,” she continued, glaring at Remi. “I almost thought you were vigilantes.”

The brunette girl giggled int other hand before being silenced by a glare.

“We came to meet with Elsie,” Blyke replied. He smiled at her (small and hesitant).

“And you’re Elsie.” She turned to look at the brunette and for the first got a proper look in her eyes as she stared into them.

The same dark brown eyes as William Doe.

“What’s your ability?” she asked. Remi and Blyke stared at her in confusion, eyebrows furrowed.

“I… Err…” She mumbled over her words. She burned a hole into the floor as she stared at her feet, refusing any more eye contact. “I can halve levels, block abilities from use and enhance levels by 1.5. All temporarily.” The girl’s face was white with fear.

Sounded like it would be labelled aura manipulation to her.

“And what’s your level?” Seraphina continued the questioning.

‘Elsie’ stared up at her with wide, shimmering dark brown eyes that continued to pore at her with the shock like she couldn’t believe what was happening around her and had a tear spilling out and shimmering down her pale cheek.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> 2159 words.
> 
> This is being posted rather earlier than usual but I had the time more now. Sorry for any inconsistencies as I have just done some last minute editing whilst I haven't looked at this chapter after I typed it up.
> 
> This is the last chapter for at least now that will be posted on a Monday as I will go back to posting only once a week on a Friday now.
> 
> What do you think of this chapter?


	29. Who are You?

“My – My level?” Elsie questioned. She stumbled over her words and she started shaking.

“Yeah, your level,” Seraphina repeated.

The girl remained silent, refusing to speak. Her dark brown eyes stared at her wide. Her dark brown hair curled around her face. She doubted it was actually brown. It would make more sense if she had black hair.

“I don’t think she wants to tell you, Seraphina,” Remi interrupted. She had taken a step forward and placed a hand on her shoulder.

“Two!” she cried out. Her body sprang up violently with the energy. “2.1.”

“That… wasn’t what you told me,” Remi replied as both of the two stared at the girl. “You told us you were a 2.7.”

“Oh, I forgot. It changed,” she explained. Nervously, she twiddled with a strand of dark brown hair around her finger.

“How do you forget that? That would have taken several jumps for that difference,” Seraphina replied, arms crossed over her chest.

“Pressure!” shouted the girl. “pressure does things to the mind!”

She ran one of her fingers in a circle through the air by the side of her head.

“Really?”

Seraphina smiled down at her and a bead of sweat ran down the brunettes forehead. A small smile quivered on her lips. 

“Yeah, totally.”

“I don’t believe you,” she whispered into her ear, so Remi wouldn’t protest.

“You don’t?” she questioned, staring up into her light blue eyes with her dark brown eyes. Tears pooled in part of her eyes.

“No.”

She pushed her shoulder and shoved her to one side. The girl fell through the air, barely moving to block her fall.

“Hey, what are you -”

Remi cut herself off. She understood why as her red eyes focused on the girl.

The form manipulation had undone. She had hit her head in the floor.

Her hair flowed out from the dark brown roots to golden blonde hair that was insanely straight compared to the curly hair from before. She looked nothing like John. Her chin had sharpened to a point and she had a slim frame all over. Maybe her shoulders were well-built, like John.

“Elsie?” she heard Blyke’s voice call out.

“I…” She glanced off to the side, a hot red blush on her cheeks. “Prefer brown hair?”

She questioned herself. That wasn’t the reason.

“How though?” he asked. He sounded as if he had been completely dumb founded. Had he not even suspected her of lying? Where had he met her?

“Did she ever tell you the name of her ability?” she started to explain to him. She hadn’t said the name earlier. Many did when asked about their ability often leaving out the actual explanation.

“No,” Blyke replied before Remi could respond. She guessed from his reaction that he met ‘Elsie’ first.

“Its aura manipulation,” she finished. 

Remi nodded, biting her lip, whilst Blyke stared at her with gold eyes wide and an agape mouth.

“How did you know that?” 

‘Elsie’ stared up at her – her dark brown eyes wide with shock. They were one part of her appearance that had remained the same, though now straight golden blonde bangs fell into the dark pools. The rest of her hair fell straight to just beyond her shoulders (to the centre of her upper back).

However, her bust size had remained the same, though more natural in appearance. A C or D cup.

“You gave a description that I thought matched the title of aura manipulation. You manipulated the aura of the person to match their level.” She shrugged. “And you reminded me of someone.”

“John?” Blyke questioned from somewhere behind her. She didn’t care where now. But he did sound faster spoken, heavily breathing.

“No, John’s father,” she replied.

The two remained silence and when she turned to check on them, they had walked closer together, faces creased in confusion.

Turning away from them, she faced the liar of a blonde again.

The girl had stood up to her measly height of about 5 foot exact. A defiant gaze was shot at her as she settled her shoulders to a straight, horizontal line.

“Who are you?” she asked. She felt all their gazes draw to her. Had they not even suspected that?

“Els-“ she started before she got cut off.

“Don’t lie!”

She flashed her glowing blue eyes at her. The world turned grey for a second. The bead of sweat ran down her face as she stared up at her with those wide dark brown eyes.

She had a passive ability after all.

“El – Ella!” she gasped out.

The room went silent.

“You’re the missing girl,” Remi mumbled, audible in the continual silence. Ella nodded.

“She’ll find me now!” she cried out. She hid her face in her hands and she heavily sobbed. Her breaths gasped out, attempting to draw breath into her lungs.

“Hey, she won’t,” Remi replied. She wrapped her arms around her and pulled her face to her chest.

“How do you know that?” she replied, sobbing.

“I don’t know,” she responded. “But we can try.”

Her fingers dug into her dark blue hoodie and clung tightly to her. “I – I.”

“Everything’s going to get better,” she continued.

“She’s dead though!” she yelled out before covering her face with her shoulder again.

“Who are you?” Seraphina questioned again. Who was this girl?

“Ella. Ella Doe!” The girl looked at her in confusion. “I think you know my brother.”

“So John is your brother.”

Seraphina looked at her for a reaction, but she had buried her face back into Remi’s shoulder. Remi raised an eyebrow at her.

“You…” Remi started, pushing the girl off her shoulder and crouching slightly to reach her eyeline. “Do your parents know where you are?”

“No,” she replied. She tilted her head to the side. “I’m still fifteen.”

Heat rushed to her face. This girl was fifteen? She looked twelve – or at least sounded twelve and was the height of a thirteen to fourteen year old, though short for even that age. She guessed she did have the bust of someone older.

“Oh, yeah, that,” Remi replied before mumbling to this side. “I guess you wouldn’t have a reason to lie about that.”

“My birthday’s in August,” she continued. Apparently, she wanted to accentuate how old she was, Seraphina thought.

“I get it; you’re the year below us,” Remi mumbled in response.

She was only the year below them! That had been difficult to guess. John was only the year above her then, but she guessed he had been held back a year.

“Wouldn’t your family want to know where you are?” she asked. The girl turned to stare at her, intentionally listening to her every word with a blank face of false ignorance. “They have found your sister’s body earlier today. Or maybe yesterday. You’re a missing person.”

In fact, she had likely been a missing person for quite a while but this was a low tier district so she guessed that no one had bothered to look here. However, they must have found her sister somewhere nearby here. They must know that she is in a low-tier area now.

“I guess,” she answered. She didn’t believe in her words; she put no energy into them. “But his is my mum’s warehouse.”

Of course. She would have had to find somewhere she had felt safe and could provide shelter. Somewhere one of her parents owned would have been an easy answer and luckily one had been nearby, hadn’t it? 

“You’ve been here for how long now?” Blyke explained to her. He stood the furthest away and refused to come closer to any of the girls. “I’ve known you for at least a week. Do you really think they’re going to come here any time soon?£

“No?”

“You’re brother would be happy to see you.”

“Yeah.” She rolled her eyes, crossing her arms over her chest. “I’m not my sister.”

Was this girl a bitch or something? She wasn’t thankful for the offer. If someone was after her, she would be safer at Wellston with adult high tiers who were already experienced in protecting students.

“Just come with us,” Seraphina ordered. The girl glanced at her. A sweat bead ran down her nose as she held the glaring eye contact for a few seconds.

“Okay…” She hesitantly replied.

It wasn’t like she didn’t trust them. At least, she guessed that was the case. Maybe her coming here had made her doubt Remi and Blyke.

“But what about -” Blyke started.

“Come on, her family, Blyke,” Remi whispered to him. Blyke nodded in understanding, but his turning away from their gaze told her he wasn’t happy about it.

“I’m still fifteen!” she yelled, throwing a fist at her.

It made contact with her chest. Remi stumbled back a step but stopped from going any further.

“That had no energy behind it.” Remi looked down at her in disappointment.

“What do you mean?”

“And with that, let’s go,” Seraphina said.

She was dead. She was dead.

She was gone. He would never see her again. She was gone. She was dead!

Tears weaved their path down his cheeks. When would the funeral be? He repulsed at the thought of seeing her body. Burns and stabs. Who would have done that then?

He buried his face into his pillow. The fabric was already soaked beneath his face.

And Ella was missing. How had his mum missed that they were missing for an entire day? Then again, it sounded like her in the worst way possible.

What the fuck was Ella up to? Did she copy Mary’s ability to kill her before running away? She had no reason to kill her, but then… She could have runaway at another time. 

However, the ability. Mary was killed with the same ability as her own. It was a family member, wasn’t it?

Who could he trust now? His father? His dad was trustworthy. He always was there for him. He had only met his mum after he had been expelled. Plus his dad was the only one who didn’t have an ability.

He stared up at the blank ceiling. His head now rested on the pillow, the duvet creasing beneath him as he stared up. Empty white.

The door to the dormroom clicked open.

He bolted up.

Was Blyke back? Why would be come back? And it was Midnight again! Did he have insomnia too?

He pushed his door open to see who was there. Blyke did stand there in the hallway leading to the bedrooms with Remi. Seraphina stood nearby with a short blonde gripping her hand.

Why was she here? All she did now was insult her girlfriend and follow Arlo obediently around like a dog.

What had she told Ella? He didn’t want Arlo’s influence tainting her too. Though, she probably wouldn’t like Arlo anyway.

He reached forward and grabbed Ella’s wrist. He pulled her towards him and hid her behind him.

“What did you do to her?” he whisper-yelled. He didn’t want Keene coming over.

“Do to her? John, what do you mean?” Remi asked. Of course, it would be her. It’s not like he was talking about her specifically.

Ella’s light giggle rang in his ears.

He took a step back and slammed the door shut.

“John!” Ella smiled up at from where she had taken a seat on his bed. 

“Wow, you’re lyings gotten better.” He rolled his eyes.

She rolled her eyes too.

“Yes, I would rather see mum.”

“That’s just because she spoils you.”

“She spoils all of us.”

Suddenly, he wrapped his arms around her, pulling her close to him as he sat next to her on the bed. “You’re alive,” he sobbed.

“What do you mean?” she smirked. “do you think I would let her kill me?”

“Who?” What the heck was she talking about? She’s typically over-confidnet as normal, but what the fuck?

“Call dad.”

He passed her the phone, unlocking it with a fingerprint before she took it. Then it rang through the air.

“Hi.”

“Ella? This is John’s phone.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> A/N: 2018 words.
> 
> It finally happened.
> 
> There are some details that weren't initially true, but make more sense to be true now as time has passed and more of the comic is out. Maeve was Queen at New Bostin High School but never had an official fight to declare this. She just became Queen as she was known to be the strongest girl in the school. I think this makes more sense with that the King of New Bostin at John's time was 3.7 and it would be how she met Ella.
> 
> What do you think so far?


	30. World of Ghosts

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Warning: sexual harassment  
> A line marks the beginning of it.

Her body ached. Her muscles were pulled deeper and deeper into the crumbling soil beneath her body. Heat flashes covered her body, searing through the skin onto the bone. Fragile china.

The muscles would not contract her lungs. Nothing flowed. There was no oxygen in her body, travelling through her blood. She couldn’t move.

She was suffocating.

“Mary!” a voice cried out somewhere above her.

Mary? Was that her name?

“Mary!” the voice cried out again. Maybe she knew him. She was fairly certain it was a guy. His voice was low and deep. His hands were large and callused as he held her shoulders and shocks her body.

That’s right. His fingers were clasped around her upper arms, shaking her body under his grip. She wasn’t sinking into the earth inescapable anymore.

“Mary! Mary! Please respond!”

“Mary?” she responded. Her eyelids fluttered opened.

A man leant over her, his bright gold eyes glimmered under the moonlight with tears pooling and dripping down onto her face. He had messy, spikey hair of a mix of blue and green in colour, and it fell perfectly into his face. The muscles in his arms were toned as he moved to place his hands on either side of her.

“Phew,” he sighed. The tension drained out of his body.

Her yes stared along his muscles. Her tongue rang over her lower lip as she ran a finger over the muscles of one of his arms. She smiled as his face glowed red. Pushing him over, she leant over him, gazing over every fine point of his body.

“Horny,” she heard another voice say.

“Huh.” She glanced up and around the two of them. A group of young adults stood around them. Heat rushed to her face.

“Look, Horny, there are multiple of us around here,” the guy continued.

Rei sat up benath her and she moved to stand up one side of him. She stared at the guy with wide eyes.

“Oh, your ashamed of yourself now,” the guy replied. He wore jeans that looked to have been dragged through dirt and a creased t-shirt that never made it to the iron board.

“Since when were there other people here?” she asked.

“All the time, darling,” the guy replied snarkly.

_Ella’s footsteps pounded across the concrete behind her and out of sight. If she kept running, she would be safe._

_The heat flushed up her knuckles. Flames swirled around her ombre claws._

_“Oh, the kittens want to play with the big cats.” Venus smirked._

_“What the fuck?” Mary replied. She screwed up her nose in disgust. “What are you doing cornering us in an alley? And activating your ability?”_

_“You’ve already told Ella to run, so I think you already know.”_

_Before she could blink, Venus’s claws slashed over her arms. The stinging searing through her nerves let out a scream. Blood pulsed forward. Skin blackened to ash._

_It was her right arm._

_“Why though?” she questioned. Could she run? Her ability gave her speed, but she was only an 8._

_“Look, I’ve killed your boyfriend. Aren’t you going to run too?”_

_She leaped forward from the end of her foot, dodging to the side of Venus. The claws tore through the fabric of her coat. The flames ignited the material, bursting upon the black._

_“Oakleigh? We broke up. And he keeps texting me. He texted me half an hour ago!”_

_“One of your exes then.”_

_“I don’t know who you’re talking about.”_

_She spun around, aiming at her back with her claws._

Suddenly, she gained the idea to glance down at her arms. Blackened slashes fallen into ash. A large gouge was on one of her arms, flaky with dried blood.

“Since when where they…” She mumbled off.

“Since you arrived,” Rei answered. He had stood up to full now. His own body was covered in black burns, some areas ashen to the bone. There was a gorge from his shoulder to his heart, almost bloodless.

X-Static was dead. X-Static had lightning powers. Rei had a lightning ability. Rei was standing in front of her with a fatal wound.

“I’m dead, aren’t I?”

“Yes.” He reached out a hand towards her and she accepted. “We need to leave her now, though. They could catch up at any time and you need new clothes.”

She glanced down at her clothes. Her black sweater crop top had become untucked and had a tear running from the base to the centre of her bust. One sleeve was burnt off to the elbow. The other had a slash of three claws, singed at the edges. Blood splatters were dark and dry, over the torso and more blood had soaked through at where the slash was at the elbow of the sleeve.

Her light blue jeans were burnt through at the knees. Road burn. She didn’t remember that part. Dark grey streaks were dragged acrossed the light blue and blood was covered in patches. There was at least one blood soaked patch of several litres without damage to the jean. It was torn in other places (her thighs, her calf, the back of her knee) and signed at the edges of the slashes. The gorges were full of globs and dried blood.

There were blood splatters along with the mud on the white trainers.

“Oh god,” she gasped out.

“I know,” he replied, moving his other hand to her shoulder. “We all had damage like that.”

“I don’t feel that pain.”

“Good point,” he responded, slightly taken back. “You don’t feel the pain from injuries before arriving here.”

“Okay,” she huffed out. She turned in one direction. “So where are we going?”

“This direction.” He used his hand on her shoulder to turn her around to face the opposite direction.

“Oh,” she said as they started walking into the trees.

_Venus met her claws at the last moment, turning to face her with a small smirk on her face._

_“Honey, do you really want to try?”_

_She did not reply. Instead, she pulled forward with her other hand, attempting to reach past her aunt’s hand. Venus’s other claw gorged through her forearm._

_Her arm was useless now._

“So, what was your Vigilante name?” asked the guy from before. His name was Braylon.

“Vigilante name?” she questioned. She looked up into his red eyes with yellow strands of hair falling into it with furrowed eyebrows. “Do you mean my favourite superhero? That’s an odd question to ask.”

“What do you mean?” one of the girls asked. She had dark blue hair in a pixie cut, silver eyes glowing in the moonlight, and a mint hoodie with a zip hanging below the hem of her light pink pleated skirt. She could glimpse the black t-shirt underneath. “We’re all victims of Ember. Vigilantes. Superheroes. I was known as ‘Blue’. I was one of the first victims, otherwise I would have stopped taking action whilst Ember was in my area. Though I guess they wouldn’t have left until they got me too.”

_She dodged to the side as ‘Auntie’ stabbed out again. She rushed to behind her again and slashed through the back of her coat and into the skin of her back._

_“You little bitch.”_

_A foot connected with her stomach. She flew back over the concrete as the power of blow resonated through every particle of her body._

_Her head collided with the concrete. The world went black. Then it was back within a second._

_“You’re the little hoe your whore of a mother created. Sleeping around. How she ever settled with a cripple to have three little maggots with is beyond me? She was so above him in every way.”_

_She leaped up to her feet at the beat of her heart. It rushed in the race, blood pounding through the veins and audible in her ears._

_She rushed forward again._

“I’m ARKRayGeous,” Braylon told her, smiling down at her as if it was something to be proud of. ARKRayGeous had been one of the lamest superheroes in her opinion. Unlike X-Static.

“Err, I…” All their eyes turned to her, stopping in mid-step to keep all attention on her. “I wasn’t a superhero. I wasn’t killed by Ember.”

“Well, you had to be killed by Ember to have arrived here next to us,” Braylon explained, wrapping his arm over her shoulder. “All the victims of one killer arrive next to each other. To arrive with us, you were killed by Volcan.” He placed a finger on her chest, where there was a gap in the fabric, torn by a claw, so his sweaty fingeritp was on her bare skin of between her breasts. “You aren’t wearing very appropriate clothes for the task, though I guess they aren’t thinking about the clothes anymore as the risk of death and getting arrested has increased dramatically.”

Was Venus, her aunt, really Volcan? She thought she had been killed by her due to who her mother was. Venus and Juno, her mum, had never gotten along as long as she had known the two. Something had happened whilst they were at school. She hadn’t recently gone to the same school at the same time as a sibling and John had been annoying when they had attended the same school. She always thought their rivalry started as there was only ten months difference in age between them: October and August.

* * *

Braylon’s finger trailed up her bust and to one side, poking the soft flesh of her breast. He gazed down hungrily at her.

She attempted to move away from his touch, but his other arm around her shoulders prevented that.

“Stop that!” yelled Rei, ripping his hand away from her by grasping Braylon’s wrist. She ran to Rei’s other side.

“Why would you do that?” asked/ shouted one of the other girls. She had thick, long, lavender hair that fell down around her in waves down her face to the base of her shoulder blades. Bethzy’s emerald green eyes glimmered with flaming anger in the limited beneath the canopies of the trees.

“She seemed horny. I thought I would indulge her,” he mumbled, almost to himself. His eyes trained on the floor.

* * *

She had not been horny! It had been Rei! One of the most perfect guys she had ever emt. She had never met someone who didn’t judge those around him on levels as much as him. He didn’t ignore anyone; he wasn’t oblivious to those around him.

He had trained his body to support his ability to help others and now he had a six-pack beneath his loose light blue t-shirt. His messy hair was kept well, but never overly kept that everything was perfectly in place. She could run her hand through the fluffy pillow of his hair.

And his gold eyes with an amber tint eyes always smiled at her every time she won a turf wars game. Or walking around the school. Or every time she was around him.

Or how he had held her back from going too far.

_With her uninjured hand, she pulled it out, aiming for her torso or chest. Venus’s claw ran over her sleeves, gashing a small cut across her arm that started healing as it was small. She pulled the arm down to her side._

_“Why keep trying this, Mary? You won’t win. I’ll make it quick. Maybe painless. I wouldn’t know.”_

_She didn’t reply. She rushed back again, but swerved to this side at last moment. Her claw slashed over her leg and she stumbled. Her speed went down. She needed to go faster._

_She tripped over. Air rushed past her ears, pulling her hair harshly back, before she crashed onto the ground, the one working arm held forward to break the blow._

_Every part of her hurt._

“How are you here?” asked one of the other superheroes, known by Equinox. He had almost white lilac hair that was shaved at the sides and loud swooping hair on the top.

“I died,” she replied. She knew that was not what he meant.

“I mean, if you’re not a vigilante, how are you here with us?” he explained, moving his hands in gestures whilst he talked.

Walking besides Rei, she replied, “My surnames Doe. My dad is W.H.Doe.”

“Oh,” Braylon said. Quite a few members of the group had placed themselves between her and him. It felt more comfortable that way.

A roaring started up to the right of the group. She jumped out of her skin before burying her face in Rei’s shoulder.

“They found us.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> 2096 words.
> 
> Just as a warning, quite a few of next few chapters also contain sexual harassment, though on a more of a mentioned scale. I don't intend for it to be a major theme or even a theme, really.
> 
> I'm also back to the Friday upload schedule instead of the Monday and Friday schedule if you haven't noticed. I updated Narcissist as well last week, though I doubt I'll be regularly posting again yet.
> 
> I'm sorry if Rei is out of character in this. It feels like it is to me, but I'm bias as the writer.
> 
> What are your thoughts on the chapter?


	31. See You Again

“They found us,” mumbled Rei next to Mary. His hand grabbed hers and started running with the rest of the group. They had continued to run in the direction they were already walking in Maybe they were hoping they wouldn’t notice the direction hange.

“Who?” she asked. She could tell it was urgent, that they were likely after them in some way but she didn’t know what or why. The answer could change everything.

“Be quiet,” Rei whispered back, placing a forefinger against her lips.

Apparently something that could track sound but not scent. She wanted answers now though. Was it people or something even worse? If it was other people, did they have abilities in this land of the dead? (Did she have her ability here?) Or if they did have abilities? What tiers? Were they multiple different tiers between the gangs? Did the strongest level lead? Or was it the most charismatic?

Or if they were some sort of create, what were they? A wolf? A lion? They weren’t a bird (at least not the most common to though); they were on the ground. But how many? She needed to know – Now!

She let go of Rei’s hand as they continued to run. She moved her hands along with her running. Her heart thumped in her chest – every beat heavy. However, she knew she wouldn’t get out of breath. It was her passive – gave her an extra boost for speed. And her breathing was better than the average person.

Soon, she was in the lead except for one person. She didn’t know where they were heading.

Then they broke out of the woods onto an abandoned city. The grass verges on either side of the grey cracked road was dull, a vibrance of the dark green having somehow been removed. There were other buildings in view too: a set of flats on top of a row of small shops, an abandoned park on the other side of the shops and more buildings beyond.

“The malls near here,” Rei told her as they came to a steady walk. “I think we’ve lost them for now.”

“What were they?” she asked, but Rei ignored her.

“We need to head there,” he continued, grabbing her hand and pulling her along.

They continued to walk along the pavement, heading past the park.

“You must have trained well as a cripple,” Braylon stated, coming up to walk level to her (though at least a metre away under the glare of quite a few of the others). “That running speed was impressive.”

“Well, I did train my ability as much as I could as soon as I had it,” she replied, smiling. Then the smile dropped. “Wait, did you just call me a ‘cripple’.”

She stopped mid-step, turning in a sudden rush to face the blond man. Bralyon froze.

“You’re – You’re not,” he stumbled out.

The entire group were staring between them. Why had he thought she was a cripple? She hadn’t been one for over ten years. She didn’t have the air of a cripple, did she? Did everyone around her think she was a cripple?

“Don’t,” she heard Rei’s voice whisper in her ear. His hot breath brushed over her ear. His hand moved from her hand to her waist. “He didn’t mean it that way.”

“Do you mean you have a passive?” He continued to puzzle out. “But W.H. Doe is your father and he’s a cripple. How would you have that strong of an ability? Are you lying about him being your father? Why did she kill you?”

“Her mother’s a God tier,” Rei replied for her. His words to Braylon were daggers in the wind.

The group remained silent as they started to walk along again.

“So, it’s true that you two knew each other in high school,” one of the others said.

“Yeah, I was Queen at the time.”

“Oh, I didn’t realise,” she mumbled in apology.

The group walked with small conversation until they came up to a tall, wide building with a front of glass.

“Is that the mall?” she asked to which Rei nodded.

He pulled her into the closest clothes shop and he searched through the woman’s shirts clothing rack.

“Hey, shouldn’t I choose out the clothe?” There weren’t any staff nearby. She guessed there were none at all here.

“We have to wear dull clothes to not attract ‘their’ attention,” he replied, pulling out one of the shirts and placing it in front of her.

“That’s the wrong size. That’s why I want to chose the clothes myself,” she said, attempting to grab the shirt of him.

“Wrong size, okay,” he mumbled to himself and turned back to the shirts.

“Hey, let me look at them.” She pushed in front of him and pulled out a grey t-shirt. 

“Would this work?” she asked.

“Yes,” he answered before walking down the isle to where there were a bunch of jeans stacked.

“You’re acting weird,” she commented as she walked up to him.

“Mary, why did you lie?” he asked, turning back to face her. “And then you got mad at Braylon for his assumption based on that lie? And you weren’t phased by him sexually harassing you? You punched Kuyo in the face once for coming within a two metre radius of you. With you ability.

“And you have the same ability as Volcan.”

She glanced at her two feet in the blood splattered trainers and drilled a hole into the ground beneath with her stone hard gaze. “I was killed by my aunt.”

“Oh,” he gasped. She doubted that he saw that coming.

“I don’t know why she killed me. It could have been because my dad is W.H. Doe or because she has a life long rivalry with my mum.”

A tear streamed down her face, trailing across her pale skin, and more of the salty drops fell down her cheeks like a waterfall.

“I’m dead, Rei. I’m Dead!” she cried out, taking a step forward. She stumbled and fell head first onto his chest. “Ella was nearby.” She sobbed. “She was after both us. She could find her so easily and then she’d go after John.”

His arms wrapped around her and pulled her close. “I thought you were holding something back.” She glanced up to see his face flushed red. “I’ve never seen you so calm.”

“I never finished my university course. I was never able to go further with my field of choice,” she continued. Her tears soaked through his shirt.

“I know, I know.” He spoke into the nook of her neck.

She wrapped her arms around him and stayed there in his arms. “If there was anything good out of this, it was that she was reunited with Rei. He was the best guy she had ever met. He was the best person she had ever met.

“Hey, what are you two doing?” Braylon came up behind the, walking through the isle with keen interest in what the two were doing.

“Looking for clothes for Mary,” Rei replied, letting go of her. She walked to behind him, blocked out of Braylon’s vision. 

“You’re using her, aren’t you?” he stated. He took a step forward to reach towards her hand.

“Go away,” she replied, tiptoeing to look above Rei’s shoulder.

“It was only one touch,” he whined mostly to himself, turning around and walking out. Guess he never really believed what he accused Rei of.

“Are you okay?” Rei asked her once he had turned back around to face her. 

“Yeah.” She glanced at the ground. She barely phrased by Braylon’s actions. He was just… irritating. She wanted to stay several metres away just so she didn’t skewer him with her ability.

Her own emotions were freaking her out. It was the lack of them. Did this come from being dead?

“Do you want to find trousers now?”

She nodded. Quickly, she jogged to the visible jean section and pulled out one of the first pairs of jeans.

“Does this work?”

“Yes, it does.” He smiled. He seemed more of himself now too.

She walked over to the changing room and changed into the clothes. Rei smiled with her when she came out.

“Are you done?” asked Blyke, walking through the isle of clothes up to them. “Looks like it.”

They exited the mall and continued through the empty city. The windows were dirty; the plants were out of control.

Surely there must be other dead people here too.

“Where’s everyone else?” she asked. Her hand was clasped into Rei’s, who kept glancing at her with a reassuring smile.

“What do you mean?” he responded, glancing at her in confusion.

“This is a city and there’s like at ton of people who have died even in recent times,” she inquired. “So shouldn’t we have seen at least one other group of dead people?”

“We’ve been wondering that smile the second of us arrived here.” He paused to take a second to think. “I think some of us have seen others, but maybe they spoke a different language. I can’t ask them now though – the majority of them were bitten.

“Bitten?”

“The creatures that we were running from before.” Finally, she was going to find out what they had run from a few hours earlier. “When they bite you, you evaporate. We’re lost quite a few to that, especially those who have been here longer. It seems like it will get all of us eventually.

“They’re mostly in the forests, so logically they stayed in the cities at first but then if you stay in one city too long, the spectres come. Luckily, none of them have caught us yet but we don’t want to risk it.”

“Oh,” she replied after a moment. The shimmer of the dull world was fading. The only good thing in this world had ben that she was reunited with Rei after three years of no talking, which had outweighed everything else of this terrible world, but now she could lose him again. 

“Don’t feel bad about it. I’ll protect you.” He smiled at her. He had guessed what she was thinking again. “Plus, you can protect yourself.”

The silence became eery between them. She could lose him again. They both had lost to Venus. They both had died before and it could happen again but it could be permeant this time. 

“What difference does protection make when both of us have lost to death before? It doesn’t make a difference in the end, does it?”

“It does though,” he replied, pulling her towards him. He held her in his arms and continued, “It will be both of us fighting together with the rest of the heroes.”

She glanced up into his gold eyes.

“Do you remember that time we fought Agwin for the first time together?” He moved a strand of her honey blonde hair from falling in her eyes to behind her ear. “Neither of us could take them on individually, so we managed to team up on them.

“Arlo held back their Jack and you were able to defeat their king with one strike. Knocked him out by hitting his skull with your claws.”

“I thought I was going to pierce his skin.”

“And then Broven broke out of Arlo’s barrier. He went for Arlo; they were the same age. But you ran up to him and blocked him because Aro had stumbled back a few steps from the shock of his barrier being broke. Then you jumped Broven, piercing his shoulder. 

“Then it was only the Queen left. I think she was the only God tier Agwin had at the time. But we teamed up on her and took her down and won the match. 

“We can do that again here if we run into trouble.”

It was true; she had a lot of practice fighting besides Rei but it wasn’t like they won everytime. In this world, any of those loses could have resulted in death.

“Okay,” she hesitated. She shivered into her arms crossed over her chest. “But do you promise not to die?”

“Of course, I have no intention of dying on you, Mary,” he told her, grinning. His body posture relaced into playfulness, as if forgetting the situation.

She shrugged it off as they continued walking down the street. The sun was lowering in the sky that was rapidly turning, purple, red and orange.

They didn’t notice the blank forms appearing around them.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> 2087 words.
> 
> I don't know why I'm posting this at midday instead of later but I am posting it now. 
> 
> I posted a new story this week called Butterflies. It's a ghoul alternative universe on unOrdinary mostly focusing on Blyke and Remi. I do plan on posting a new chapter soon, but I don't plan on having a scheldule on it until I finish writing Golden Child (and, likely, Narcissist).
> 
> By the way, the next chapter will return to the normal world for the Sunday that has so far stretched six chapters and will stretch at least one more chapter. After that, it will be one or two more chapters of Rei and Mary before I return to the next chaotic school week. 


	32. The Kiss

“Ella? This is John’s phone,” Will greeted through the phone. His voice questioned every word he spoke.

“Ella! You put it on speakerphone!” John cried. They were going to be able to hear them in the next room over. Keene would come over!

“So?” she replied with a smirk. She was enjoying his pain over the possibility of getting caught, wasn’t she?

“That’s really Ella?” Will exclaimed through the phone’s speaker. “She’s with you at Wellston? I’ll get a plane over there as soon as I can. I’ll aim for tomorrow. I’ll tell Juno too.”

He smiled to himself. They would be together again.

“There was an attack at my house, so I have moved into the boys dormitory,” he explained, gazing at the phone. “We’re currently in my dorm room.”

“Don’t worry, the headmaster told me when you were moved into the dorms.” There was a pause before he continued. “Is Seraphina again? She was the target of the attack, wasn’t she?”

“Yeah, I’m okay,” a voice answered. Sera had opened the door and closed it behind her with a click as she stepped into the room.

He glared at her as she continued to walk up to the two siblings and took a seat next to him. To look at the phone, she pressed her body again his and leaned over.

“I’ve fully recovered from it,” she continued, smiling at the phone as if it was a video call and he could see her.

Then she whispered into John’s his, “My abilities back.”

He didn’t know why she was telling him. She never cared about him, so why would he care about her?

“Isn’t it about midnight where you are?”

“Yes, I don’t know why he’s over right now. Nor do I know why Remi’s over with Blyke and arriving past Midnight.”

“We were the ones who found Ella.” She smirked at him, as if daring him to disagree or kick her out.

“At least it was a Saturday,” his dad mumbled to himself, not intending for it to carry over the phone line so that they would hear. “Thank you, Seraphina. Tell your other friends that too.” He changed who he was addressing. “Ella, where were you? Why didn’t you return to your mother?”

“I was at mum’s warehouse,” she replied as if it was the most obvious thing in the world. 

“She has at least twenty of those warehouses.”

Ella shrugged before smirking at John because she knew that her dad couldn’t see her.

“What about what happened to you?” Will asked.

“I don’t want to talk about,” Ella whined, leaning against the board at the head of the bed and slouching against it.

“Ella, will you tell the authorities what happened?”

“If I want to. I don’t like them.”

“You’re going to have to tell them. You can’t let your emotions run your life all the time. That’s how you got suspended in the first place.

Sera gaped at the short blonde, slouching against the back of the bed board. He wasn’t the one in his family who had major violence issues anymore. He had improved until others preferred him the way he was before.

Sometimes, he swore Ella was a compulsive liar. Every bad thing about her took others by surprise. Why did nothing about him surprise others? Why did no one trust him?

“Suspended?” she gasped. 

“Apparently, she can justify attempting to stab another student,” Will explained, causing Ella to roll her eyes.

“He was annoying.”

“You could have just ignored him.”

“Didn’t want to.”

“Now they have evidence for your reasoning to kill her,” he stated, exasperated. He was trying to rile her up.

“Reasoning to kill her!” she shouted, suddenly sitting up straight. “But it was Auntie! She cornered us in the alley and Mary told me to run.”

“That’s what you have to tell the authorities when they ask you about it,” he explained. “Except in more detail so they believe you.”

“Why wouldn’t they believe me?” she questioned back.

“You have lied enough that it has ended up on your school report,” he told her.

“So?” she replied. “Why would I lie about this?”

“It doesn’t work like that, Ella.” He sighed over the phone. “Anyway, John, tell your school staff that Ella has turned up and is with you as soon as possible. Preferably within this hour. I think they would want to know that Ella is in your room as soon as they can.”

He nodded for a second before replying, “Yes, I believe Keene patrols the corridor.”

“Go now then.”

He stood up and left without saying anything.

Remi and Blyke were no longer in the hallway and no light shone under Blyke’s door. They had vansiehd. He didn’t care though.

In the corridor, there was no one around, but if he walked around enough, Keene should come to confront him.

It didn’t take long. He had only taken a few steps when Keene called him out. “John, why are you out at this time? Didn’t you just come from your room?”

Turning, he said, “My sister turned up.”

“The dead or the alive one,” he replied, seemingly serious. He turned bright red at his suggestion.

“Alive one,” he mumbled, feeling the heat on his cheeks.

“Okay,” Keene replied, clearly panicking already as his breath shortened. He walked up to him and then went ahead of him as they headed back to John’s room.

“She’s the one who was reported missing in the news today, wasn’t she?” Keene asked, his blue eyes glancing hesitantly at him. He nodded in answer. “So, she is no longer missing. How did she make it here to your room without anyone seeing her? How did she know which room was yours? Are you staying up late for it to be athis time? Have you contacted your parents?”

Half of Keene’s questions seemed to be mumbled in panic, so he ignored at least half of them.

“I’ve called my Dad. Ella might still be on call with him. He’s planning on contacting my Mum,” he explained.

“I expect they’ll be here as soon as they can. How close do they live?”

“My dad lives an eight hour flight away, but my Mum owns several properties,” he answered. They came up to the door and he opened it for both of them. “She might be in the next neighbourhood or half way across the country.”

“Okay.” Keene headed across to his room and opened the door before stepping in. “Hello, you must be Ella.”

“Hi,” Ella replied, her voice dripping with annoyance.

It was way too late for this.

Blyke’s face buried further into the pillow. His head was groggy in the early morning light. How was Ella?

Remi’s warm body was next to him, pressing up against him. His arms wrapped around her waist, holding her close for comfort.

Pressing up against him…

Blyke’s eyes snapped open and he flinched away. That hadn’t been a pillow.

He slipped out of the bed. Maybe he wouldn’t have done that if she had worn her bra. It would have been more obvious if she had worn it, wouldn’t it?

Whilst bright red in the face, the heat not leaving his cheeks, he slipped out of the room and walked right into someone.

He stumbled back a few steps, crashing into the door behind him. Then the door vanished from behind him and he fell through.

“Oh, sorry,” Remi apologised from where he stood above him. Suddenly, her face turned bright red as she glanced up in front of her. “Err… Hi.”

“You must be my son’s roommate,” the lady said. 

She wore a casual smile on her fair face. She had honey blonde hair that was clearly naturally straight but messily kept to fall more in waves, though very slight waves. Her bright gold eyes that were pools of cheerful greetings and happiness with hidden mourning.

She had the same gold eyes as John and the same honey blonde hair as Ella’s true appearance.

“And are you the young man’s girlfriend?” she asked, smiling at Remi.

Hesitantly, she nodded slowly. He guessed she didn’t want to explain why she was with him in his bedroom at this time in the morning in Blyke’s shirt and her underwear whilst he was topless and wearing pyjama bottoms.

Quickly, he stood up once the lady walked along the rest of the corridor and entered the other bedroom on the corridor so that she vanished out of their sight.

“That was John’s mum,” Remi whispered, staring at the open door. “She looked so much like Volcan.”

He nodded. Along with them sharing the same eye colour and hair colour, she had the same sharp pointed chin.

“But she couldn’t have been. She would have recognised both of us together,” he replied. “Particularly you as you removed your mask whilst fighting her and she showed no sign of recognition or even suspicion.”

“Well, she would have lost several inches in height too,” Remi responded. “Even if Volcan hadn’t worn heels that night. Plus there was a massive style change between the two. I doubt that lady’s ever touched eye make up before (though I guess she must have at her age).”

“I’m going to the bathroom,” he said after a few seconds. She nodded and he left the room, closing the door behind him.

John stood in the hallway between the bedrooms and the kitchen. He gave him a puzzled look. Had he overheard their conversation? He thought they had been whispering pretty well.

“Your mum’s –” 

John’s fist collided with his face and he stumbled back. He didn’t say another thing; any other words would likely earn him another punch to the face.

Soon, he returned to Remi in his room, who had changed into her clothes from the previous night.

“Did John punch you?” she asked and he nodded. “God, that’s just like him.” She paused, glancing at the wall to the side of her. “Did you touch my chest whilst we were sleeping?”

“Sorry I was half-asleep.” His eyes locked onto the ground below him. “I thought it was a pillow -”

Her palm made contact with his cheek. The stinging rang through the skin of his cheek: harsh and piercing.

“I deserved that -”

He was cut off by her lips crashing into his. Her hands wrapped around his neck, pushing herself up to be level with him. She stood on her tiptoes and pressed her body hard against his.

“Sorry.” She smiled as if it was a joke before pushing him down onto the bed behind him.

His back pressed against the duvet on the unmade bed. Both her hands rested on either side of his head, supporting her weight above him. Her knees were pressing against his him on either side of his legs.

Slowly, she lowered her body against his, her hands moving to his hair. She tugged at the strands as she buried her fingers into his hair.

Then she drew back, gasping for breath.

She rested her head against his shoulder as her breathing calmed down.

He brought his hand up and stroked along her hair.

“You like me, don’t you?” she mumbled into the air around her as she continued to lie on top of him.

“Yes,” he replied hesitantly.

Did that kiss mean she liked him back?

“Do you want to be my boyfriend?” she asked again. His heart thumped in his chest. He was certain she could feel it below her as she laid on top of him.

“Yes.”

She didn’t respond at first his heart rate sped up.

“Do you want to go out tonight?”

He attempted to look up at her but couldn’t see her face properly, so he wrapped one of his arms over her waist instead.

“Yes. Where do you want to go?”

“I don’t know. I guess we have the entirety of the day to decide,” she replied. She sat up, sitting on the duet.

He nodded and sat up next to her.

“Hey.” Ella’s head poked through the door. “My mum wants to talk to you.”

Ella vansiehd again behind the door and Remi stood up.

“Come on, let’s go meet her,” she said, offering him a hand that he accepted.

When they stepped into John’s room where John’s mum was standing in the centre of the room. She smiled the same warm smile from earlier.

This was definitely not Volcan.

“Hello, I’m Juno.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> 2083 words.
> 
> Blemi!!!!!
> 
> I think I may have swapped to the british spelling of 'mom' during this chapter and several others after it. It may have also been like that in chapter 29.
> 
> What do you think of this chapter. 


	33. Juno

“Hello, I’m Juno,” John and Ella’s mom greeted.

It was clear how she was related to John with her heated gold eyes that acted like a window to the soul, showing her emotions through the window. She would never be good at faking her emotions.

Juno’s honey blonde hair fell down to the centre of her back, longer than Ella’s. It was the same shade too. However, Ella’s was straighter, but it was clear Ella had inherited her hair texture from her mother. Juno’s hair was purposefully curled into waves, long and slight enough to look natural and almost straight. Then they shared the same sharp pointed chin and body shape (slim but curvy for their body size). She was taller than Ella too – Juno being about 5 foot 3 inches – but Ella was clearly still growing.

She wore a black sundress that started with thin straps that went across her collarbones diagonally and wrapped around her neck, thicker there to hold it up easily. Then it flowed down close to her large bust until it reached midway down her waist. A light grey leather belt wrapped around her waist twice for decoration and beneath the skirt flowed out to her knee. It acted like a loose skirt in the wind.

This was definitely not Volcan.

She didn’t have the height, as previously mentioned, and the entire air about her… Volcan had taken enjoyment in fighting someone to the death and fought for some corrupted agenda whilst Juno didn’t strike either of them as that type of person.

“Hi, I’m Remi.” She offered her hand out to shake that Juno accepted.

“I’m Blyke,” he said, shaking her hand too.

“Sorry if my daughter caused you any problems,” she started.

“Your son’s caused us more problems,” Blyke retorted before the lady could say anything else.

“Really? He’s been good recently though. Clear for several years,” she rambled. Remi was having a difficulty seeing this lady as being in her thirties or forties instead of her twenties. “Did something happen to cause him to relapse?”

“What would have caused him to relapse?” Remi asked. A relapse would suggest something had caused it, but other than Seraphina losing her ability there was nothing and she thought if it was directly related to her ability loss he would have been a lot more open about it.

Though she suspected she had her ability back after last night. She was definitely able to scare Ella into obeying and it was likely that Ella could see levels. Seraphina’s ability level was definitely one to terrify.

“I don’t know.” Jun’s gold eyes glanced to the side. “The authorities were able to get through to him, but I believe it was at a heavy price. They probably attempted torture. You’d have to discuss it with him.”

“The authorities?” Remi questioned. Maybe Juno would have a further explanation on what they were doing. And did she just say torture?

“Just… never piss them off.”

Her heart thumped. Did that include vigilantes? Maybe they ran EMBER and that’s why the authorities didn’t put any effort into investigating the deaths of the superheroes.

“John punched me in the face earlier,” Blyke said after a pause. He really was attempting to get an apology right now.

“John!” Juno called out, staring out at the doorway. “Is it true that you hit this nice young man?”

“He aimed a laser beam at my head,” John replied grumpily, leaning against the doorway.

“You beat me up twice after that,” Blyke replied.

Juno shot a look at John, which Remi realised a second later was a glare. “John, apologise,” she commanded.

“Mom, but -.” He was cut off.

“Apologise.” Her eyes flashed gold.

“Err,” John hesitated, his gaze sticking to the floor. “I’m sorry.”

He vanished behind the door again, tail between his legs.

“I’m sorry for whatever he put you through. This isn’t the first time he’s gone overboard.”  
  


“He -” Blyke started.

“I’m sorry, but can I ask you some question about Ella first? I want to gain an idea of what happened from other sources; others sources that are more reliable.”

“Okay,” Remi replied before Blyke’s words could form over his lips.

“How did you meet Ella?”

Remi glanced at Blyke. He was the one who initially met her and she paused as he didn’t speak.

Finally, after a few seconds had past, he answered, “I met her in a low tier neighbourhood that I was passing through when I bumped into her but we didn’t talk. Then I met her at a later date and we decided to meet regularly. Remi insisted on coming one time and Seraphina followed the next time. She lied about her identity and Seraphina spotted that. That was the last night.”

“Why were you in a low tier neighbourhood?” she questioned.

Again, Remi glanced at Blyke. What would he say? They didn’t know what Juno’s beliefs were nor he career path. Though, she had to say she didn’t have a high opinion or respect for the authorities, which could lead one to suspect that she liked the idea of superheroes.

“You can tell me. I won’t judge,” she replied, catching both of their hesitance. She shrugged, continuing, “I won’t care if it’s illegal.”

A sigh of relief passed her lips, but Blyke’s words never came. Never reached her ears. She glanced towards him and met his own eyes before he glanced away with a blush to his cheeks.

He hadn’t told her that he had acted as a vigilante in the beginning. He was terrified of her reaction.

_“Remi, I think we should stop doing this.” Isen stared at her in her eyes as he spoke his words. Why did he have to do this now?_

_“What do you mean?” she replied, gazing at him as her eyebrows pulled together._

_Her arm was dead beneath the grip of her other hand._

_“It’s too much for us to handle.” Sweat dripped down his jaw as he spoke. “Let’s just stick to being students. Stick to Turf Wars. Stick to managing the school, okay?”_

_“…” Blyke had remained silent as he avoided looking at either of them._

_“But we have evidence now,” she defended, ignoring whatever Blyke had been doing. “We found EMBER! We’ve gotten so close. We can’t back out now!”_

_Isen’s jaw trembled as he stood next to the dorm bed. “Will you wake up?” His fists were clenched at his sides._

_“Someone died tonight!” he continued, bringing one hand – now unclenched – up to the height of his chest. “Volcan killed her right in front of your eyes and you still want to keep going?”_

_“… Of course!” She hesitated. Others had died already and that could happen to her. But she could be the one to stop the deaths and she would be the one to avenge Rei! “It’s not over yet!” she continued. She needed to. “EMBER’s still out there plotting -”_

_“Not over?!” Isen interrupted her, shouting as he took a step forward, and moved a hand out to gesture at Blyke. “You know what would’ve happened if Blyke’s aim was just a little bit worse, right?”_

_She stared up at him as he paused for breath._

_He had brought his hand back up to his chest with his fingertips now grazing over his shirt._

_“WE’D ALL BE DEAD RIGHT NOW!”_

_“Hey, hey, calm own.” Those had been Blyke’s firsts words in that part of the conversation. His hand had reached over and grabbed Isen’s shoulder._

_“We’re still here!” she responded as soon as the tension in Isen’s body had gone._

_“…” Isen remained silent._

_“Because we were strong enough to ward her off,” she continued. They could do this; all she needed to do was make them agree with her. “We can’t just give up because something didn’t go our way! Then nobody would ever get anywhere!”_

_“If we want answers, we have to work for them! Though won’t just resolve themselves. If we, as the strong, don’t find out what’s going on them who will?”_

_“So what?” Isen replied. “You wanna keep trying ‘till we get ourselves killed?!”_

_“That’s not what I said!” How could he get that from what she had said? They wouldn’t die when they worked together and improved! “We learned! Now we know more for next time!”_

_“There is no ‘next time’!” Isen stated. A final statement._

_“Isen?” Blyke’s words questioned themselves. What had he been thinking at the time? Who would he agree more with?_

_“This whole Superhero thing was such a stupid idea!” She stared up at him as he spoke those hateful words. “I quit!”_

_She stared as he turned towards the door. He left without turning around, without looking at her._

_She sighed. Surely he was the only one._

_“Hey, Blyke,” she called out to where Blyke stood next to Elaine, staring at where Isen had last stepped in the room. “Do you think you could convince him to hand over the footage?”_

_“Remi…” he started, glancing at her with his gold eyes. “That’s enough for today._

_“I know you’re going through a loss…” He moved closer to the side of the bed where Isen had stood half a minute ago. It was going to be the same again, wasn’t it? “And I know how strongly you feel about EMBER. I agreed to help because I didn’t want to get hurt. I really thought the three of us would be enough to take on anything, but the deeper we dig, the more dangerous it becomes._

_“Now look at the condition you’re in!” She looked away from him to the floor the other side of the bed. “This isn’t what I intended to happen.”_

_He paused and closed his eyes for a second. “Alana’s death was very real. Isen was right? If I had missed one more shot… I don’t want to lose you guys.”_

_“Blyke.” The dream she had built up around her was crumbling beneath her feet. “You weren’t -”_

_“It’s been a long day,” Blyke cut her off. He also turned towards where Isen had headed to. “Let’s just rest up for now, okay?_

_“Elaine.” His attention had turned to the other girl in the room. “Please take care of her for me.”_

_And with a few more words, he had left too._

At the time, Blyke had shown no interest in Superheroes himself, but now… Well, a lot had changed around them.

When she realised that Blyke had likely become a superhero himself, she was angry with him for telling her not to do something and then doing it himself. But then there was Ella… He hadn’t done it. She didn’t know how they met and then there was that conversation with Isen. She knew that he had become a superhero by now and she didn’t really care about it anymore because he hadn’t continued it.

She looked at Blyke and their eyes met. She nodded.

“I was a vigilante,” he admitted, avoiding both of their eyes. “On the first night, Ella was being chased by one of the people terrorising the neighbourhood. Their leader. I stopped the attacker and she ran off.” 

He took a pause to think about his next words.

The story did make sense. Ella had admitted yesterday to basically being a runaway and had suggested someone was after her (and that someone was also female). How had Blyke not seen it earlier?

“She was attacked. By who?” Juno demanded. Her eyes were wide with terror, growing ever whiter as Blyke continued.

“There’s a drug trade that occurs between mid tiers and a group. The drug enhances the user’s level and many of these mid tiers then use their new found power to terrorise low tier neighbourhoods. I don’t know if Ella’s attack was targeted or not because she was the only person outside at night in a neighbourhood who had recently been terrorised, but she did later ear someone finding her.”

“Oh God,” Juno whispered under her breath, her eyes trained on Blyke as she hung onto his every word. “Continue.”

“I didn’t question it, but I met her again the next time I went out. It was a different neighbourhood, though near enough to the first one. I was in over my head in something and she helped me get out of it. For reasons, she insisted I no longer act as a vigilante and offered to help train me instead. I accepted.”

Remi stared at Blyke. What was ‘for reasons’ meant to stand for? How did she convince him to no longer act as a vigilante? He had been helping people, hadn’t he? Who would want to stop?

She had only stopped because her friends didn’t want her to get so they no longer supported her idea but no one else had known what Blyke was doing. Had Ella suddenly developed feelings for him?

That seemed out of character for the Ella she knew last night.

“It continued like that. She had found an abandoned warehouse – though she lied about that and I think it was one of yours – and we trained there. Then Remi asked me about a text from her and I let her come. The next time, Seraphina followed us. Apparently, though neither us had noticed, Ella’s story didn’t fully add up and she had lied to us. That was last night and Ella had been reported missing, though without a picture. We wouldn’t have recognised her anyway as she had copied a shapeshifting ability. She admitted to be John’s sister and we convinced her to come here.”

“Seraphina was the one who had figured it out,” she replied. “She figured out the lie.”

“Yes, I don’t really know how she did it though,” Blyke answered. “I think she saw a similarity between John’s dad and Ella and his abilities.”

The blonde nodded. “Well, they both have the same abilities though they use it differently. And you mentioned someone was trying to find her who?”

“I don’t know,” Remi replied. “But she did say ‘she’.”

Juno glanced out the window.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> 2350 words.
> 
> Thank you for reading. I'm thinking of stopping reading unOrdinary for a few weeks to see if it picks up, but I doubt that I'll succeed in that when Thursday comes around but if I do some information might not be up to date.
> 
> As a clarification, in this Arlo's aunt is now Volcan. It came out after I planned this and it doesn't really fit in, especially with the next two chapters.
> 
> What did you think of this chapter?


	34. The Two Sisters Separated by Ten Months

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Child abuse (neglect)  
> A line marks where it begins and ends but its the most explicit part as its threaded throughout the chapter. 
> 
> This is also a flashback. The entire chapter is a flashback so I haven't used italics. 

“ ‘enus!” Juno called out as she ran down the corridor. A navy skirt reached down to her small knees, hitting each knee with the fabric as she ran along the shiny wooden floor.

A taller blonde girl poked her head out of one of the closed doors. Her honey blonde hair floated around her head. A rouge dress had long sleeves that covered her arms, shown with the one arm that gripped onto the doorway.

“Juno, what are you doing?” the girl asked, stepping out and leaning on the now closed door as Juno skidded past.

To lsow herself down, she stopped moving her legs and now she skidded along with both feet across the shiny wooden floor. A few metres down, her legs had slipped from under her and she fell over and landed on her bum. She fiddled with the collar of her white blouse as she breathed.

“I want to play with you,” she replied, lying on her against the wood of the floor to look at her without turning any part of her body.

“I don’t want to play with you,” she hissed back through her teeth. She slammed the door shut behind her.

“Wait!” Quickly, she swivelled around once she had sat up again. She leaped over to the door and tugged on the door handle. “Why?”

“I only play with kids who have abilities,” she replied, partially muffled by the wood of the door.

“But I’m your sister,” she said, pressing her cheek against the door.

“You’re still a cripple,” she responded. “I only talk to you because you are my sister.”

“We’re only seven though,” she replied. Why was everyone like this? “I’ll develop an ability soon.”

“You don’t get it. You should have developed it ages ago.”

“So? I can still develop it.”

* * *

“It wouldn’t matter now,” was her final words before a hand grabbed her arm and dragged her across the floor.

She wiggled her entire body under the grip, struggling to no avail. She attempted to get her arm out of her hands grip, attempting to run back down the hallway, but it didn’t work.

“Stop, Juno,” the voice of her mother commanded. She went limp in her grip. She gave up.

Suddenly, her body was flung across an empty space that was shadowed without light.

A door was slammed shut and locked with a click.

Her legs pumped beneath her as she ran back to the door. Her fist hammered on the thick wood. Bang! Bang! Bang!

“Mother!” she cried out as a tear rolled down her cheek to no response.

* * *

“ ‘enus, I think I do have an ability?” Juno announced to her sister one school day when they were eight.

She wore a grey dress with a silver zipper that fell down to her knees with a white blouse underneath it. Black shoes were on her feet, a strap holding the low cut on each foot. Dark grey tights covered her legs.

“Stop calling me ‘enus,” she responded, only looking at her to glare. “My name is Venus. You can pronounce the letter ‘V’ now.”

“But it’s cute.” She smiled, not taking anything from the piercing glare that she never gave up on.

“You’re not going to say anything on what else I said?” she asked. Venus’s gold eyes met her own gold and she laughed, bringing a hand to her face as she continued to laugh at her.

“It’s not funny!” she hissed, her own eyes now throwing daggers at her own sister.

“If you have an ability, show me,” she replied, taking a breath from laughing only to burst out laughing again a second later.

“I’ll try,” Juno whispered, closing her eyes. Her face creased with concentration as she focused, but Venus only continued to laugh.

Then something clicked. The blood in her veins tingled.

She opened her eyes and heard a gasp.

“Can you actually do anything with that?” Venus retorted once she had recovered in a second. “Or does it just glow?”

She held out her hand in front of her and attempted to produce claws. How did Venus do this? It must be painful to have claws burst out of one’s hands.

“Well, I guess you need to get above a one first,” she laughed before waking off to another gang of girls.

“But…” A tear rolled down her. “Can’t you help me get stronger?” she whispered to herself.

She fell down on to her knees before folding in on herself with her knees draw into her chest.

Pages flicked underneath her thumb. The book was useless like the rest.

Juno sat at the desk in the family library, leaing over a book with two stacks of other old books on either side of her. The read stack pile was taller than the to read.

Nothing was working.

Juno’s back hit the wall. She gazed up to meet blue eyes.

A random person. A new day.

“Shut up, Cripple!”

A fist collided with her face. Pain stung through her cheek.

At now ten, her ability hadn’t gone more than a glow. She still had not figured it out – no matter how much she read through books about the family. There was no clue to what her ability could be when she couldn’t do anything.

She remained silent as she glared up at the girl. Her parents were God tiers, so as soon as she worked out her ability she would be like her sister: above them.

She couldn’t wait for then.

  
“Stop smirking.” Another fist collided with her jaw.

The girl with messy red hair and glowing blue eyes. Her ability was super strength.

Her jaw felt broken.

Something clicked when looking up into her eyes.

The books had mentioned of a few of her ancestors on her father’s side (which was easier to track in some ways) had an ability named ‘aura manipulation’. It was a rare ability and very overpowered.

It would be her dream ability.

  
Copying someone else’s ability and doing anything would it. She could defeat everyone who attacked her with their own weapon. Imagine Venus’s face when she stood over her with fire claws. Plus, she could control other’s abilities when they use them.

Though, it was so are that nowhere was it written how it was used by the user. Were ability users now aware of how they use their own abilities?

She flicked the switch and reached out with her hands. Balling one into a fist, the power rushed through her muscles and she topped forward. Her fist collided with her own.

“What the fuck?” the girl cried out, stumbling back. “Since when did you have an ability?”

“I never said I was a cripple. I’m just a low tier,” she answered. She leapt up onto her feet and ran away from her. All the others ignored her as she ran across the school grounds and back into the school buildings.

She needed to try something.

The long lilac dress reached down to Juno’s calfs and the dress was held up by spaghetti straps. The bodice fitted against her torso until there was a black sash that was wrapped around her waist and was tied in a bow at the side. The skirt of the dress lilac dress flowed down in pleats until the end.

She ran across the grass of the lawn, dew drops springing up onto the bare skin of her legs. By one of the tables with jugs of punch and groups of white plastic cups stood a girl with light blue hair that reached down to her collarbone who held a cup containing a purple liquid inside in one hand and a paperback book in the other.

“Isa,” she called out as she slowed down to a halt in front of her. She pulled her hands behind her to clasp behind her back. “Can I ask a favour of you?”

“Yes, what is it?”

“Can you activate your ability?”

“Huh, okay.” She turned around to close the paperback book and place it on the table with the cup soon being placed on top, so she could remember which cup she had drank from, before she turned back to her face the honey blonde girl who had hair that reached down to her lower back.

Her green eyes flashed into aura.

“Can you use your ability?” she asked, peering over her. She tiptoed to get closer to the body of the teenaged girl.

“Ooookay.”

She held her hand out and an explosion that blasted a metre off the ground and several metres away. She made sure to look into her eyes as her air was ruffled and blown about by the explosion.

Juno held her own hand out and focused. A bang sounded. Air rushed past her face, ruffling through her long hair.

“Woah, Juno! You’ve found you ability and it’s the same as mine. Best cousins forever!”

Isa offered her hand out for a high five. She hesitated before accepting it, lacking the proper energy. Without a chance of another word, she turned and ran.

“Mother! Mother!” she shouted across the lawn as she ran.

“Huh, Juno.” Her mother stared out across the land to her from where she sat with her aunt. “What do you need?” she asked once she was standing directly in front of the bench.

“Watch this!”

She held out her hand and focused again. The bang went off. The air blasted, flinging her hair behind her head.

“Oh, you’ve developed your ability,” her mother said before she turned back to her conversations.

Her shoulders fell. The world went dull. She had tried to be what she wanted. Did she not do enough?

“Are we not going to talk about how your daughter has the same ability as my daughter and my husband?” asked her mother’s sister, not to her care.

“Hey, I heard you have an ability now?” Venus asked. She had walked up to them in the long hallway of the mansion. The family get together was last night.

“Yes, I used it last night.” She smiled back, the smile reaching up to her eyes. Finally, she would talk to her again.

“I heard it was the same as Isa’s and Uncle Oliver’s,” Venus responded. She was smirking with her arms crossed over her chest.

“Well, I wouldn’t say it was exactly the same.” Her mind flashed back to that mid-tier with the super strength ability. She had used that ability too. She did have aura manipulation, didn’t she?

“Show me then.”

“Huh.” She stared up at her with her wide gold eyes.

Venus wanted proof. She guessed it was like her but…

What was she supposed to show her? She doubted she still had Isa’s ability copied. There must be a limit to the time an ability lasts.

“What? Your ability suddenly doesn’t work now?” She laughed, holding her hands to her hips as she looked down at her.

It wasn’t supposed to go like this.

“Well, if you use your ability first,” she started, smiling sweetly as she clasped her hands in front of her.

“Use my ability first?” she barked. Did she not believe her? Juno shrank away from her, taking a step back. “I’m not an idiot!”

“Oh, okay,” she mumbled.

She flashed her ability on and focused. Nothing happened.

“So that’s it?” She continued her malicious laugh. “Juno, that’s the same as before; just your glowing eyes. It’s nothing special, really Juno.”

“It’s just the wrong time,” she replied, staring up as she took control of her nerves. Venus wasn’t above her; they were the same age and eventually they’ll have the same level. But they were on the same level now and she shouldn’t look down on her. “You’ll see. I do have one and I’ll work on it so you can see.”

“Don’t kid yourself Juno.”

Without another word, Venus walked off. She held her head high as she walked, not even caring about those beneath her. She didn’t need to care; they didn’t affect her.

The only low tier Venus had ever bothered with recently was her and that was only because she was her sister. She wouldn’t care otherwise. It was arguable whether she did actually care. Her parents didn’t care.

Venus was the future Queen of their School afterall.

She wouldn’t expect more from her. That was Venus. The Venus she used to love and the Venus her parents loved.

She would love to be in her play right now. Though, if she had her way, it wouldn’t be like that for long.

She needed to get stronger.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> 2100 words.
> 
> For what I said last week about stopping reading unOrdinary for awhile, I didn't go through with it. More context for what I said, I use fastpass for unOrdinary.
> 
> Juno's determination to become stronger (mostly from coming from a high tier family) has meant she is less scarred from her past of being bullied than other character and has mostly forgotten that part of her childhood. She is also much younger than John when she did develop her ability, so would likely barely be considered a late bloomer compared to other characters in this story. 


	35. Number One

Juno flicked through the book in front of her. This was it; this is how she could control aura channels, which would mean she could enable herself to control the strength of the ability she copies when she uses them.

If she used this aspect in a fight, she wondered how quickly she would climb to an elite tier. The elite tiers still picked on mid tiers in High School and she was only a few months away from going to the boarding school that her parents had selected for Venus and her. They wouldn’t be able to pick on her.

She didn’t want to lag behind.

Juno smoothed down her rouge skirt. It reached down to just above her knees and a belt was wrapped around her waist to keep the skirt fitting to her. A white blouse was underneath the scarlet blazer, the white collar of the shirt sticking out higher than the blazer’s collar.

“Come on, Sweetie,” called out one of the guys in school uniform. “Just give us a look.”

She pulled her shoulder bag closer to her body as she continued to walk away from the gang of other mid tiers. Would they do this if they knew who her sister was?

There was a scuffing sound screeching along the slippery floor towards her and then something wrapped around her shoulders.

Her eyes flashed gold.

Her hand gripped onto his arm and pulled it away from her body. He was yanked away from her, but still in her arms reach as she continued her white knuckle grip around his wrist. She pushed against his closest shoulder and she let go. He toppled over and landed on the floor with a crash.

The boy wriggled on the floor, struggling against the floor all around him to attempt to stand.

She placed her shoe on his chest, pressing hard down to pin him down. A low growl emitted from her throat.

“Nice panties,” he commented, flashing a smile as he stopped moving around to look. He gazed up at her, but didn’t meet her eyes. He licked his lips.

She kicked his face – hard – and blood drew back.

As she walked away without a visible care, she heard them laughing. Laughing at her! They were the same level, so it didn’t matter that that they bothered each, but it wasn’t fair. They should fear her.

The magenta haired girl hit the wall. Cracks pierced through the bricks on either side of her.

“Guess it was true your ability copies others,” the girl said with a smile. Juno’s heart skipped a beat. Was she not mad at her? “Guess I know what it feels like to be on the other side of my beatings.”

Juno nodded. What was up with this girl? Most grew more angry at her when she turned the tables on them and beat them.

The girl pushed herself up from where she had slid down the wall. There was blood dripping down her back. Her uniform was blood stained, ruffled and creased.

“I’m sorry,” Juno whispered. Her amber eyes looked into hers and she nodded.

The girl walked off, heading towards the nearest staircase. The infirmary was downstairs.

That girl was fine with her defeat, even if she started the first. Would others be? Could the entire school be like that, not caring about levels and their position in the hierarchy.

“Hold your hand out,” the man stated. He wore a navy suit: a blazer with sharp shoulders, and grey suit trousers. A tie was tied around the collar of his white shirt.

He worked for the Authorities.

She held her hand out. He grabbed her hand by the wrist. His palm was sweaty. She couldn’t move away from him.

She would wash her hands forever, scrubbing hard, after this.

The man nodded and hummed, letting go of her wrist.

“It will be out in your report,” he said before she walked out of the room, never quick enough.

Clutching the card to her chest, Juno walked through the school crowd. All the students were bustling around and rushing about at the end of the school year.

Her body was shoved to one side and then another as students shoved past. Where was her parents’ car? Surely it would stand out.

Then again, she was no where near the road on the car park.

“Juno, what are you doing?” Venus’s hand clapped around her arm and she pulled on it. She stumbled to keep up with her speed as Venus held her head high and cleared a path.

Then the car door clicked open and she flung inside. She landed on the soft cushion of the car seats and quickly swivelled around to sit properly on the car’s cream leather seat.

“Venus!” her father cried, looking back towards the two sisters.

“She couldn’t navigate her way through the school crowd,” Venus stubbornly replied, crossing her arms over her chest in defiance. “I wasn’t going to wait for hours for the rest to leave and she to finally find her… way here.”

Her parents accepted the answer (despite Venus clearly planning to use an insult against her) and the car was off onto the roads across the country. She gazed out at the light blue sky outside of the car as it passed by the car.

Then the car stopped. She jumped out of the black car and ran around to the boot. It clicked open and she dragged out the suitcase, running up the stairs to the front door.

“Juno, slow own,” cried out her father, who jumped up the step to catch up to her and unlock the door for the family.

She rushed inside, sliding the report in the envelope that she had clutched to her chest across the table in the entrance room, before running up the stairs with her suitcase in one hand.

She burst into the room and placed her suitcase on the silver-blue stall at the foot of her bed that was also the width of it. It had white legs with thick rings that went out then in along the length. The bed was supported on a white bed frame that was as thick as the mattress and almost touched the silver pattern rug beneath the bed. The mattress sat on the bed and was covered by a silver duvet tugged into the bed. A set of pillows were leaning against the tall soft cream bed board that was in the shape of half of a hexagon. It started with three blue pillows, then two longer but shorter in height beige pillows and last was a pale gold cylinder pillow.

On either side of the bed stood two bedside tables. Both were white and had three draws each with golden handles to clutch onto to drag it out. Each had a lamp with a blue pearly stand beneath it.

Behind the bed was the one wall that had wallpaper on instead of the beige paint. There were three tall thin trees with light pink blossom petals across the tin dark brown branches. On one branch stood a small black and white feathered bird.

By the window was a white desk with two shelves on either side of the blue cushioned chair that was held up by silver legs. The draws had circular gold handles. On the desk sat a cylinder vase with purple flowers in bunches.

Grey curtains hung on either side of the window.

“Juno!” her mother shouted. Her footsteps stomped along the wooden floor of the hallway, quickly coming closer as she yelled.

She spun around and flopped down on the bed to take a seat on the duvet of her bed, facing the door expectantly.

Juno’s mother, Dulcia, opened the pale painted door and stepped inside.

“Why did you leave so soon?” she asked, smiling affectionately. She sat up straight as she stared up, terrified, into her mother’s shining blue eyes. “You’ve done so well.”

Her eyes widened. She hadn’t known why she had rushed up to her bedroom to hide from everyone, but she guessed she didn’t want to see her parents adore and praise her sister whilst they just scorned her.

“I wanted to unpack,” she lied.

“You should have waited for us to read your report,” she replied, not paying attention to her words. She reached forward to her and ruffled her hair through with her fingers. “It was good. It would be even better if you turned some of those Bs into As.”

She stared up at her with her gold eyes. She knew those.

“And you’re a 4.2 now,” she continued, continuing to play with her hair. “You could be a high tier by the time you’re an adult.”

Dulcia complimented her like it was something of eventuality, but she was a Milla; she couldn’t just be a high tier!

The books she had selected were set out in front of Juno. She had to know how to get higher! To get better!

But there was nothing left to learn at this point. All she needed was to put what she knew in further practice but there was no one to practice with here.

“Juno, what are you doing?” asked her mother as she walked into her bedroom. “Are those books from the family library?”

Her fingers with long scarlet painted shiny nails brushed over the browning page.

“This isn’t a subject you study at school,” her mother nit-picked. “This isn’t one of your textbooks. It isn’t going to improve your grades.”

“It’s about abilities,” she replied, attempting to continue to read the same line with her focus again.

“Abilities?” she questioned, running the through the clogs of her mind. “Your ability, aura manipulation, has something to do with others abilities, doesn’t it.”

She tapped her nail against her bottom lip.

“Yes,” she answered, not looking up.

“So, are you trying to get stronger?” she asked. She attempted to look in her eyes whilst she buried her face into the book.

“Yes.”

“So you’ll be a high tier before he thought,” she concluded. She was glad in her tone though only neutral produ.

Smiling, she moved her head back to look at her mother in the eyes.

“I plan on being more than just a high tier.”

Her mother stared at her with her blue eyes in shock for a second before she relaxed.

“Then you’ll need practice.” She reached down to kiss her forehead whilst she dragged her fingers through her long tangled blonde hair.

As Dulcia left a warm feeling glowed in her chest. Her heart fluttered. She wanted that feeling again.

Juno’s knees skidded across the floor. She faced up to the man, who had an orange semi-transparent spike in his hand.

Her mother had hired people to help her train.

Pushing off on the ball of her foot, she sprang forward and activated a new ability. Claws pierced out of her hand and flames burst around the claws.

The man spun the spike like a poll and blocked the claw attack. She dodged beneath the poll, skidding along the shiny floor, and sliced across his leg, pulling the joggers apart as the thread tore and blood spilled out from the cut. The muscles were cut through like scissors through meat.

The man fell to his knees.

“Another win.” Dulcia sighed, walking over to where she had now stood up and watched her. She ruffled her hair. “That’s enough for today.”

Another person walked in and took the man away.

Everyone stared at Juno as she walked through the corridors of the school.

The crowd took a step back as she passed through. Is this what being Queen would feel like? Could she handle this?

“Is that the girl who defeated the Jack?”

“Catch up, Heather. She defeated the King too.”

“So are they no longer Royals now?”

“No, they are still Royals. Notice the uniform and her curves. She’s a girl. She can’t dethrone the King.”

“But what about the Jack?”

“Please have brains. The King and Queen choses the Jack, so the Jack can’t be dethroned. Though a smart decision would be to make her Jack until she dethrones the Queen.”

“Do you think she can dethrone the Queen?”

“She is on that path.”

She noticed that she had slowed down her walk to almost a stand to listen to that odd conversation. Hurriedly, she sped up. Would they notice she had listened to their conversation? What would they think of her? Would they think she was self-obsessed? Would they hate her.

She bumped into someone, nose first. Pain stabbed through the her face.

Why hadn’t she paid attention to where she was going?

Her body crashed into the floor beneath her, the shock reverberating through her bones.

She looked up into Venus’s face.

“I think it’s time to end this,” she told her as she reached forward to her shirt collar.

Juno looked up to the building in front of her. College. She was finally somewhere without her family hovering over her shoulder.

If she could get the degree from this course, she would be the one to inherit the family business. She would be the Number One again, like she had been in high school.

She took a step towards her future that started here.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> 2223 words.
> 
> If you noticed that I posted a day earlier than normal, I'm planning on going on a break from social media (instagram, wattpad and ao3). I have a few chapters for this book built up, so I will be posting them for the next few days.
> 
> See you tomorrow.


	36. Tears

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Warning: Child abuse (physical).
> 
> I feel like I need to place a warning such as that in front of many of these chapters.  
> A line marks where it begins and ends.

“I think I know who she means,” Juno replied, looking away from where she had stared out the window for a good half minute (if not longer) of complete silence.

“Who?” Remi asked, staring at her unwaveringly. Was it someone they knew? No, it couldn’t be. She didn’t know Ella before yesterday, even Elsie was for a few days more, so why would she know the person who killed Ella’s sister?

Was it the same person as Rei? She hadn’t been a superhero.

“It is a personal matter,” she answered. Remi and Blyke stared at her expectantly until she would crack. “It’s likely a family member.” She huffed out. “I don’t want to expand on it without asking her.”

“Oh,” she mumbled. She didn’t really see that, but it did seem obvious with how Ella had spoken of the woman. She still wanted to now, though.

“Moving on,” Juno said in a hurry. She kept glancing about since they had told her about the ‘she’ Ella had mentioned. It was as if she was running out of time. “How did Ella hide her identity?”

“She… I think she used an ability. Like one she would have copied,” Blyke explained, stuttering over his words from his nerves.

“I think Seraphina knew what the ability was,” he continued.

“It resembled form manipulation,” Remi interrupted in a pause he took. “Our friend has it.”

“Well, she charged her hair to brown and made it curly,” he continued, nodding with what Remi had said. “She didn’t really change anything else, though it felt like her aura changed when she removed the form manipulation. She went by ‘Elsie’.”

“So Ella doesn’t know how to hide her identity well?” Juno asked.

“Actually, I think it did work well,” Remi responded. “With so many similarities, I think it made her seem to be less likely to be her.”

“She’s not an idiot,” Juno replied. “Though the similarities may make someone glance over her but it would also make someone look more closely at her.”  
  


“Who’s ‘she’?” Remi questioned. Was she saying Ella was good at making decisions (which she didn’t seem to be from what she had said so far) or was it the ‘she’ Ella had mentioned?

“It doesn’t matter,” Juno replied. She glanced away, scorning them.

“This is the room,” she heard John say. Quickly turning to face the door, John had his hand pushing his bedroom door open to show an almost identical man standing in the doorway.”

Before she could take in the man, Juno said, “Thank you for your time.”

Immediately, she faced Juno, who was clearly addressing them as John and (supposedly) his father.

“Err, do you want us to go?” Blyke asked, catching on to what the lady had meant quicker than she could.

“Yes, sorry.”

Blyke nodded and smiled as he headed to the door. She hesitated.

“Come on, Remi,” Blyke encouraged, standing at the door.

She wanted to hear what they said. It would say more about John. Maybe she would find out why John had done what he had – New Bostin and here.

“Remi?”  
  


She glanced up to where Blyke had spoken from. The man stood in the doorway, an inch or two taller than John, and had gelled raven hair. It reminded her of hwo John used to gel his hair, but it suited the man more than it had ever suited John. Maybe as his clear older age, shown with the wrinkles around his eyes from years of smiling, it suited him more. He wasn’t the irritating, greasy haired boy who didn’t understand hair care properly and was an asshole, but a man in his forties or fifties with gelled hair looked more professional.

His hair was also thinner too.

Then he had the same dark brown eyes as Ella. She could see how Seraphina had seen the similarities.

He wore a plain loose light grey t-shirt and dark jeans. Neither was something that stood out to her, blending into the background.

“Remi?” Blyke asked again. Her eyes zoned back in to the world and she saw the golden daggers that John was glaring.

She took a step forward and then took another. She walked up to Blyke and flashed a smile at Juno before leaving.

She followed Blyke back to his room and sat down on his bed, looking up at him.

“Are you okay?” he asked, moving to sit down next to her.

“Yes, why?”

“You were hesitant when leaving just now,” he explained. She glanced down to where here toes touched the floor. “I wanted to find out more about Ella.”

“It’s a family matter,” he replied, sighing.

“But it’s Ella. We knew her. Shouldn’t we find out what happened to her?” she questioned, looking into his deep gold pools.

“She lied, he responded. It just kept happening with that family.

“There was someone after her. She had to lie to protect herself,” she answered, looking directly into his gold eyes suddenly.

“She went overboard. Do you remember when Seraphina saw her as lower, so that Seraphina saw her as weak and was less likely to perceive her as a threat.”

“She was scared.”

“Who is ‘scared’?” asked a voice. She glanced up to meet Ella’s dark brown eyes, who was leaning against the door.

“It doesn’t matter,” Remi replied, standing up and talking a step towards the honey blonde girl. She had crossed her pale arms in a light blue t-shirt over her chest and leant with one foot against the door and the other balancing her on the floor. “Are you -”

“It thought it was about me,” she responded, smirking.

“The world doesn’t revolve around you,” Remi replied, turning around and walking back to Blyke.

“Then who were you talking about?” she asked. The girl still smirked like she knew it all.

She sat back down on the bed next to Blyke. That seemed to put Ella off slightly. Apparently, she had been rather serious about hating PDA, even if they hadn’t been in any form of dating at the time.

“Why it matter to you,” Remi responded, staring directly up into her dark brown eyes.

Before Ella could reply, she opened the door with a bang. Ella fell to the floor with a crash, her arms outstretched to catch her body before the impact on the wooden floor but ultimately falling full body onto the ground.

“Ella!” John called out, taking a step into the room. He grabbed onto her arm, pulling her up off the floor with a single arm. Remi winced as she struggled to find the ground beneath her, her arm pulling to the point, but it was Ella. She found the ground quickly.

John let go of the short blonde’s arm only to quickly grab onto her arm again once she had let her arm down and he had adjusted her grip.

Without another word, John dragged her out the room. Ella didn’t struggle, but didn’t move to walk with him, digging to with her heels before she vanished out of sight.

“I’m not good at judging people,” she admitted to Blyke after a pause of quiet. She trained her eyes on her feet.

Arlo had never believed in the same things as Rei: he had been the one who had taken his school structure apart brick by brick. Then there was Ella. She had entirely lied about herself: from her name to her appearance to her personality. She turned out to be a bitch.

“So? You’re still you,” Blyke replied, wrapping an arm around her waist. She leant into him and buried her face into his shoulder.

“So, what do you want to do today?”

John hugged Ella tightly to his body as he sat on the duvet of his bed, which he had made almost perfectly before his mother had arrived that morning. Ella occasionally struggled against his grip, but he wouldn’t let go. He never wanted to let go of her again.

Ella was alive. She was alive! He wouldn’t lose her too.

_“Mary?” he asked as he sat up from beneath the covers of his bed. He was two. Mary stood in the bare space of the centre of his bedroom, standing barefoot on his navy rug at the side of his bed below his window. Space patterned curtains of a black sky covered in white spots as stars, the planets, the moon, the sun, a UFO and a rocket ship blasting through space were drawn across the tall window. “Where’s mom going?”_

_“I don’t know,” the blonde replied. Her short curly blonde hair fell down to her shoulder. A lilac nightdress covered her shoulders and fell down to her ankles. She took a step towards him and pulled the covers back. “The evil man and lady are talking about her leaving dad behind.”_

_She placed her knee on the mattress covered by the sheet and slipped beneath the covers as she drew them over her body._

_“I don’t want her to go,” John whispered back, facing her in the bed. He drew his hands close to her body and brought them around her shoulders._

_“Me neither,” she responded, hugging him close to her body._

_“What about sissy?” he questioned after a pause._

_“I don’t know, John,” she answered. Her eyes fluttered as she blinked and he watched her eyes close and her breathing even out as she sank off into sleep._

_She was four._

Paying all his attention to Ella also meant he could ignore that his mother was flustered at the site of his dad whilst his dad was sheepishly not making eye contact with his mother. It was awkward. His mother still liked his dad after all this time.

Watching it made him sick.

_John’s knees were drawn to his chest and he balanced a small bowl of popcorn between his legs and his chest._

_His eyes trained on the movie in front of him as Mary sat down on the sofa next to him. She reached forward to the bowl and placed it between them, taking a handful of popcorn._

_“Hello, we’re home,” Will shouted out as he stepped through the front door. His footsteps rang across the hallway floor before he stepped into the living room._

_“Where’s Lara?” he asked as his eyes scanned over the room._

_“Upstairs with Ella,” Mary replied, initially smiling as she faced their dad but it quickly fell. “Who’s the woman?”_

_“She was my date tonight,” he answered. John looked up to the strange woman. Her baby pink hair flowed down to her waist and her brightly green eyes gleamed. He thought she was ugly._

_“She’s not mom,” Mary said before turning away to the TV. John copied her actions._

_“That’s not the point you two!” Will replied._

“I don’t think it’s safe for Ella elsewhere,” Juno said after a moment.

John watched as his dad raised an eyebrow at his mother. “Juno, what do you mean by ‘elsewhere’?”

“Someone tracked.” She took a deep sob between her words. “Her and Mary down. She’sbeingtargetted,” she explained.

“Juno, calm down,” his dad said without taking any actions. However, Juno stepped forward and buried her head into his chest, gripping tightly onto his shirt with her figners. Will stared down at her in shock and annoyance.

He shut his eyes. He didn’t want to be here.

“It was Venus,” she cried into his shirt, muffled but John still understood her words.

He didn’t want to hear them. He wasn’t to be here, but the dark seen by his eyes wasn’t dark anymore.

* * *

_“Hello, I’m your aunt, Venus,” the blonde lady, who crouched down in front of him be at his eye level, stated. She offered her hand out and he took the handshake with his little pudgy hand._

_“I’m John,” he replied, his words echoing throughout the hall._

_“Come with me,” she said after a few more words, her fingers clutching tightly onto his wrist and pulled on his arm._

_He was dragged forward, unable to escape the lady’s grip, as she walked through the corridors without looking back to him._

_Let go! Let go! Don’t touched me!_

_The bathroom door opened with a click._

_A hand grasped onto the back of his neck, shoving him forward as her hand continued to tug him forward with the pull on his wrist, and the water came up to him, forever the bubbly liquid of large foam bubbles and water that reflected the white china bath beneath._

_The water took his face, eyes stinging, before he could breathe._

* * *

That wasn’t how it had happened though. Then was more to it.

Ella kicked him in the calf with her ankle as his grip had tightened around her. He cried out.

“John, let go of her,” his father ordered after a glance in his direction. He did.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> 2141 words.
> 
> Second chapter of what I'm posting over this weekend. Thank you for reading.


	37. Lovebirds

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Warning: mental child abuse  
> A line signals where it begins and ends

The world was bright awake around Maeve that morning; the buzzing excitement flooded through her veins and now there was no force dragging her back into the soft mattress to sink in within the feathers.

She decided to eat first for once before she got ready. Any mistakes wouldn’t get in the way.

She poured cereal for herself and sat alone at the table to eat it. Remi must have gone out earlier.

She checked her phone. There were no texts or calls from Isen yet, but about a thousand missed calls and unread texts from John. What the hell?

Her heart thumped. She didn’t want to answer. She didn’t want him to know she was awake and able to read his texts. He would want her to come over and then the entire day would go down the drain. She wouldn’t have a reason to leave today and even if she found one, what if he found out?

She didn’t like the sound of Joker.

The bowl was empty and she put it in the empty dishwasher. After the last time, she made sure that Remi was at least in before she went to bed and if she wasn’t in, she would stack and turn on the dishwasher. That was what she had done before she had headed to her bedroom.

Remi might not have come back last night.

It wasn’t like any of them left the school campus at night, especially at these times.

Ember was out of control. They were killing high tiers and Remi was smart enough to get into this school that she wouldn’t make decisions that would put her life in harms way on purpose, so she shouldn’t have to worry about her. She was likely with Blyke. Or she just came home late and then left earlier. Then she should worry about her sleep pattern.

Her phone dinged again. Another text from John.

She sighed.

Leaving the phone behind, she slipped into the shower. The hot droplets rolled down her bare body as the steam bellowed out of the sliding glass door.

A few minutes later, she walked out of the bathroom to her bedroom. With the towel wrapped around her upper body, she searched through the wardrobe, passing her hand along the materials of her dresses.

It had to be a dress. Only dresses could attract a guy’s attention and make it stay.

That wasn’t true though. There was personality and skirt.

  
She shouldn’t think like this. It wasn’t fair on Isen. It was just a simple date.

She gasped.

* * *

_Maeve’s mother’s hands rested on Maeve’s shoulders. She glanced up into the mirror from where she had hid from the attention with gazing at the floor. The mirror reflected the room she stood in with her mother._

_Light flooded through the window and into the room through the semi-transparent lilac curtains. The dark floor absorbed the light, holding up the desk made of white wood in the corner and the single bed with a messy indigo duvet._

_“Maeve, why would you want to wear this?” her mother asked, pinching at the shoulders of the grey t-shirt. She screwed up her nose in disgust._

_“It’s – It’s comfortable,” she stuttered, eyes moving back down to her feet. She clasped her hands in front of her._

_That wasn’t a good reason._

_“It doesn’t matter if it’s comfortable or not,” her mother answered, her lilac hair fluttering in long lengths behind her. “Comfortable doesn’t matter. Only your body matters to guys and they are the best way to get by in life.”_

_She nodded, listening to her every word: placing emotions to the back of her mind._

_“You need to wear more fitting clothes for a start.” Her mother stepped to the side and searched through her wardrobe. “You’re already blessed with that ability of yours, so you wouldn’t have to put in much effort…”_

* * *

Her mother wasn’t right. She had never been right. That was how all her marriages fell through.

But…

She found her hand moving towards a dress. Pulling it out, it had a gold top with a blue skirt that bloomed out from the waist.

She turned, shutting the wardrobe door, and pulled the night shirt off. Bringing the bra over her chest, she clipped it around her and pulled the bra straps up over her arms and onto her shoulders. She stared into the shinning mirror. The underwear was lacy white and stood out to the pinkish tint on her skin.

Would Isen like her slim waist, curved hips and larger than average bust? What if he didn’t? She could change it at will.

She should think like this! She was worth more than questions. If he didn’t like her naked body, that would be his problem. She shouldn’t stay with someone who didn’t like her. Anyone would deserve better.

She didn’t want whatever her and Isen had to end though.

Also, she doubted it go that far today.

Pulling the dress over her head, the gold straps wrapped over her shoulders, the almost transparent lace running over as white over the gold. Then, flaring out from the waist, the blue fell out to the middle of her thigh in the shape of a bell. Lace flowers ran in steams down the skirt and across the bodice.

Would Isen like it? It was Isen, so… She didn’t know him that well. He might only be interested in her for her looks.

It shouldn’t matter. If it’s not going to work out, it won’t work out, so she shouldn’t worry.

After drying her hair, she walked up to the mirror. She moved her hair, gathering it up into a bun on one side of her head, and then did the same with another bun on the other side of her head. Her lilac hair fell around to her lower back, soft waves falling through the strands.

She wanted the natural colour.

Her phone dinged again. She glanced over to it. Her heart skipped a beat. It was finally Isen.

Clicking the phone open, she carefully avoided John’s stream of texts and read through what Isen had typed.

Isen: Where do you want to meet?

Maeve: Outside the dorms. R u ready?

Isen: Yes. R u?

Maeve: Yeah, I’m going out now.

She grabbed a handbag of hers off the chair next to the desk. It had silver scales decorating it and the lid was clasped by a gold claps three quarters down the bag. She slung it over her shoulder as she pulled shiny blue falts that pointed at the toes and had a band that went over the top of her foot.

Walking along the corridor for the third and fourth year dorms, she had to keep herself from running.

A large smile took over her face; a gorgeous grin.

Electricity sparked through her veins.

She took a skip in her step.

It was finally happening. She was going on a date with Isen. He liked he; he had accepted. She got to go on a date with him.

Then there would be the next and the next and the next and they’ll meet each other’s parents (maybe he wouldn’t meet hers) and he’ll buy a ring for her and they’ll marry at a white sandy beach with all their friends around and then they would have a child.

Her face hit the door. Sharp pain pierced through her cheeks, but she took a step back without flinching. There might be a bruise but it would heal quickly.

A good wake up call.

And let’s take a step back from that daydream she was having. It might not happen. Not all relationships work out – that’s why people had multiple relationships. Not everything worked out.

She wanted it to last.

“Maeve?” Isen called out. She glanced into the courtyard. “There’s a bruise on your face.”  
  


“It’s fine,” she replied, walking up to him. “I just ran into the door. It will heal up soon.”

“Excited to see me,” he laughed, reaching his hand forward to hers. She clasped him back and walked up to his side.

Heat rushed up to her cheeks as she processed what he said.

“I…” She hesitated. “The door was in the way>”

She glanced away, looking at the tree in the centre of the courtyard.

Isen lightly giggled and she turned back to him. Her eyes locked onto him. HSe didn’t want to ever look away from him.

“Where do you want to go?” he asked, blushing as he noticed her gaze.

“I don’t know,” she replied, glancing away again. “Maybe the park. Are there any good places to go?”

“The park’s a nice place.”

He lead her to where a lush green tree stood at the beginning of a green space. Small flowers bloomed in the branches of the large tree, a sign of spring, and she followed Isen to where a grey stone bench stood below the tree. A path winded pass a few metres away.

Isen wore a light blue that had a slight v-neck. She gazed hungrily at his muscled chest.

“Maeve.” His hand rested on his shoulder as she glanced up into his amber eyes. “You have siblings, right? What are their names?”

“Faith and Kingston. I’m the middle child,” she replied. She moved her hand to his knee, glancing up at him in question. He smiled and placed his hand on top of his. “Do you have any siblings?”

“No, I’m an only child,” he replied. “What’s your favourite movie?”

“I don’t know,” she whispered back, so only he could hear. “I like the movie ‘The Fallen Angle’ and how its background music. And how it uses its lighting to its fullest.

“And the plot too,” she relied after a pause with a smile. “What’s yours?”

“Err, ‘Lalin’s Curse’,” he answered quickly, barely pausing between his words. “Whens your birthday?”

“May,” she responded, placing her hand on top of his knee too, and leant forward more. He was just asking trivial questions? Why can’t they carry on a conversation? “May the 21st. It think I’m a Taurus, but that doesn’t matter. When’s your birthday? I don’t want to miss it.”

His face was glowing bright red as she stared up into his sparkling amber eyes. His eyes weren’t looking into hers. Or on her face…

Fuck, he could see down the top of her dress.

“Sorry,” she exclaimed, jerking back. She tugged the top of her dress further up, covering the bare skin above her breasts up with her arm. She had removed both hands from his legs.

“Why are you sorry?” he responded back, staring at her as he removed his arm from where it had lain in one jump. “I’m the one who’s sorry. I was staring and that’s my fault.”

“It’s not your fault. I placed you in that position. How would you not look?” she questioned, wrapping both arms around her body.

“It’s still not your fault,” he replied. He reached forward and placed his hand beneath her chin. Gently, he moved her face to face him. “You don’t have to blame yourself for others actions. For what others say about you.”

“But I’m a…” She trailed off.

_Slut. Whore. Hoe._

_Too forward. Too sexual. Only good for sex. She’ll never have a long standing relationship. She’ll cheat._

“You’re not,” he said. He reached forward hesitantly and wrapped an arm around her shoulder. Pulling her forward, he wrapped his other arm over her back and pressed her against his chest as he stroked her back. “You’re beautiful. You’ve incredible. Don’t place your worth in others words,” he whispered in her ear as he moved a strand of her lilac hair behind her ear.

“Then I shouldn’t place my worth in your words either.” She giggled, sitting up straight to look him in the eyes.

“I guess you’re right with that,” he replied. “But I care about you. I know you and they don’t.”

“Plus you’re a Gemini, not a Taurus,” he finished.

“How do you know that?” She smiled up at him whilst wiping a tera away from her cheek.

“May 20th. I’m a Taurus,” he responded. He smiled back down at her like he was completing a joke.

“What an odd coincidence?” she replied, laughing into her hand. “I guess that was bound to happen to some people, wasn’t it? It just so happened to be us>”

“You’re right.”

Their conversation continued into different topics as the sun rose higher in the sky. She wished it could stay like this forever. Forever…

“Maeve, why are you interested in me?” he questioned out of the blue. She stared at him, her mouth hanging open.

“Ehh…” She hesitated. She couldn’t find the right words. How could she express it?

“It’s alright, I get it,” he mumbled in reply.

“Really?” she asked, jumping forward so she rested on her knees on the bench. “Because you’re one of the best people I have ever met.”

He remained quiet. That hadn’t been what he had been thinking, had it?

“But my ability?” he asked, tilting his head as he spoke.

“I actually don’t know anything about it,” she replied sheepishly, placing her hand on the back of her neck.

“You don’t?” He stared at her with wide amber eyes. “Right, Hunt, 4.4, elite tier.” He raced through his words; speaking without breathing. She stared on in shock.

“I…” She started. He was so strong. “Thought it was lower.”

“You thought it was lower?” he exclaimed, his body jolted. “But aren’t you ashamed of dating me?”

“Why would I be ‘ashamed’ of you? What reason would I have to be ‘ashamed’ of you?”

“You’re a God tier! You’re an entire two levels above me. There are so many more guys in the school to date who are above -”

Her lips touched his.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> 2311 words.
> 
> So, last week I said that I was going on hiatus, but I changed my mind so instead I'm still posting. One of the main reasons for this is that I think it would be better to go on hiatus when school is on than when it's the holidays. However, I'm not planning on going on hiatus any time soon (unless its Narcissist, which is on rarely posting, and There, which I've discontinued and plan on rewriting at one point though that might be several years from now).
> 
> How will John react to this date?


	38. The Park

Maeve’s lips touched Isen’s and he pushed forward in anticipation. He wrapped his arms around her, pulling her body against his, and her hands moved rom his leg to around his shoulders.

Maeve’s pink lips were touching his. She was kissing him!

He roamed his hand up her back as he stroked his finger across the dress.

He wanted to touch her. He wanted her on his bed, moaning his name.

His erection pushed against the fabric of his jeans.

The lilac haired girl pulled back, gasping with a smirk.

“See, you’re amazing,” she said, smirking up at him. Violet eyes sparkled.

She glanced down and her smirk grew. “So, you’re excited to see me now.”

“Ha ha,” he replied nervously. She had a point. He had told her that earlier, but he was still sitting out in public hard. “Do you want to head back?”

“No.” He stared at her in shock as she continued to smirk.

Before he could reply, weight was moved onto his lap. Maeve was sitting on his legs, looking over her shoulder to smirk at him.

“Maeve,” he whined. His ick was pressing up against one of her butt cheeks. “I…”

She pecked him on the lips – cutting off what he was about to say.

“I want to keep talking here,” she replied. She tilted her head up to up to gaze up into his eyes. Her gorgeous violet eyes, pouty light pink lips, breasts that looked so soft and such a personality.

You want sex, he though. Or to sexually tease him. That would make more sense at that moment.

“What do you want to talk about?” he asked.

“I do not know,” she replied, glancing at where her feet hung off the ground. There was a slight swing to them, though barely. “Tell me something about you.”

He took a moment of thought to think about what he had been asked before he answered.

“I’m the head of the Newspaper,” he replied. He stared at her until she nodded. “Cecile was the head of the Newspaper before me, but Arlo removed her from the position for reasons I don’t remember.”

“What did he do to you?” he asked. Arlo may be threatening to him but he did have a good reasoning, didn’t he? You followed those who were stronger than you. If you disobeyed them, you would reap the consequences. It didn’t matter whether you agreed with them or not.

Maeve was stronger than Arlo though.

“He tried to ask me out,” she replied, brushing it off. “He’s too obsessed with the hierarchy.”

“He did?”

Why him? Why did she keep choosing him? Even if she didn’t care about his ability, why didn’t she care about others’ abilities? Wouldn’t one want to be with the most powerful person they could be? Why didn’t she go to someone else?

Didn’t she have multiple guys chasing after her? Why did she choose him? She liked him, yes. She found him attractive, but others were attractive too.

“I wish he would leave me alone,” she sighed. “Though, I guess he may have now.”

“Do you deal with this a lot?” he asked.

There had been that time when someone had catcalled Remi when Blyke and him had been there with her. Not sure why that man decided to harass a minor in a high tier neighbourhood. There were a bunch of other students around and he quickly got the idea that he had harassed an underaged high tier from the strongest school in the region.

It was irritating that Remi had let the guy go.

“No, I don’t.”

Maeve stared at him as he remained silent and looking at her. She couldn’t be serious. He had witnessed it happening a few times in the last week. It had decreased a bit after she defeated Remi, but still strangers did it

“You don’t?”

“What do you mean? Do you not deal with people harassing you? I thought that…” Heat rose to Isen’s cheeks as he continued to speak. He didn’t know the issue that well.

“Arlo was the only one who spoke directly to me.”

Isen felt like facepalming before he thought it through. Did she not notice it when it was less direct? That was upsetting. It implied that it happened so often that she didn’t notice – no longer noticed.

“What about those who speak around you?” he asked, moving to rest his chin on her shoulder. He wrapped his arms around her waist and pulled her closer to him.

He waited for a second to make sure she was okay with the physical contact (he probably should ask especially before hand but he was too nervous to) but she burst out of his arms, forcing his arms away. She stared up at him with terrified violet eyes that glimmered with moisture as she leant back on the bench with her knees over his legs.

“You think I’m a slut!” she cried at him in fear, tugging at her hair.

“No, no, no,” he immediately replied, leaning forward to her whilst reaching forward with a hand. She jerked further away.

Tears flooded down her cheeks as she stared up at him, drawing her knees closer to her body. She drew into a ball of herself.

“Are you okay?” he asked. She rocked back and forth as her breathing came heavy. “Wait, why am I saying that? You’re not.”

What could have even happened to her for her to act like this. Where did she come by the event that made her immediately associate that with being a slut? It had to be something to do with catcalling, but why did it cause that trauma? Wasn’t catcalling something that felt disgusting? Not something that caused these symptoms. He guessed maybe in certain circumstances it could cause trauma, but wouldn’t there be past trauma for that to build up onto?

He stared down at the bench before leaning forward to wrap his arms around her shaking. As he continued to stare at her, she didn’t calm down. White flowed out from the roots and it fell into the slight waves. It didn’t stop growing out from the initial length, flaring out to grow pass her hips and it didn’t seem to be stopping any time soon.

“Calm, calm down,” he whispered against her ear. He stroked her hair as her breathing started to slow down.

“Thank you,” she whispered after a few minutes. “I... I don’t know what came over me.”

“It’s alirght,” he whispered.

“Can we go somewhere else?”

He stared up at her as she stood up, brushing down her skirt, and turned to face him.

“Are we going to go elsewhere or what?” she asked with a small laugh after his cheeks started burning. “Come on.” She offered her hand out to him.

He took it, standing up, and and watched as she smiled brightly up at him with those glowing violet eyes. Her white hair had slowed down with its growth rate once her breathing had calmed down, but only now with her ability activated did it truly stop. It had reached down to her knees and Maeve had started turning about in an attempt to shorten it.

He had seen her with varying hair lengths, so he didn’t think it was usually this hard for her to shorten it. As the long strands of white hair shortened back to the length of her shoulder blades, lilac started growing out from the roots of her hair and replaced the white.

“I didn’t know your ability depended on your emotions,” Isen said as they started to walk along a gravel path that winded through the park.

“It isn’t,” she replied. She moved her arm to twirl a lilac strand of hair around her finger. “I just lost control. My passive is odd compared to many others. I keep what I changed with my ability activated – though it often falls apart when I hit my head or fall asleep. I… I think I activated my ability during that… panic attack, I think. I deactivated my ability but my passive kept it going.”

“Oh.” He nodded along to her words.

“Plus I have healing as a passive as well. I think they are connected as I’ve never heard of someone having two passives outside of fiction before.

“Anyway, I want to hear more about you.” She turned to face him and found heat rising to his cheeks again.

“You… want to hear more about me.” He pointed towards himself as he looked at her in confusion.

“Yes, why wouldn’t I?” She raised an eyebrow at him after a moments silence.

They had already bene over this. She didn’t care about his level, but something kept whispering in the back of his mind that she was just using him for her own entertainment. Some elite tiers kept mid tiers and low tiers around them as entertainment (praising, actually). Why wouldn’t a God tier have an elite tier instead?

Maeve’s phone rang.

“Sorry, sorry!” she touted. Pulling her phone out her handbag, it slipped through her fingers several times before she clicked the green button and dropped it.

“Fuck, fuck. I didn’t mean to do that!” she yelled, staring down at where the phone lay on the grass.

It was a picture of John. His gaze didn’t leave it. His buttoned shit was unbuttoned, so it revealed his six pack, the muscles glistening.

Why didn’t she have a picture like that one her phone of John? As a contact photo?

She was just playing with him. She had a hotter fitter guy on her phone who just so happened to be a stronger God tier than her. She had no reason to even want to be with him.

He didn’t know if John spoke a word or if neither of them heard it, but Maeve hung up as soon as she was able to pick up her phone.

“Sorry about that,” she said as she looked up into his amber eyes. Slipping her phone into the handbag, she continued, “He’s been testing and calling me all day. I’ve been ignoring it, but I guess I was bound to accidentally answer the call.”

He remained quiet and her smile slowly fell.

“Is everything alright?”

“You have John’s number,” he mumbled in response.

“Yeah, why’s that surprising?” she asked, her eyebrows furrowing.

“I guess it shouldn’t be.” Maeve was already in contact with John before she became Wellston’s Queen. Of course, now, she would want to have her fellow Royal’s number.

But the photo…

After a moment of eye contact, she continued, “He entered his number into any phone and selected the photo. Currently, I don’t have a photo to replace it with.”

He nodded with her answer, but still, it showed that John had an interest in her. John was one of the hotter guys in school when he wasn’t wearing his hairgel, which was never nowadays. How could he ever compete with that?

Maybe she didn’t realise his interest in her, but when she did… He didn’t matter to her that much.

“Are you okay?”

Her violet eyes sparked as she looked up at him. He didn’t respond. She leave him.

Her lips touched his. As her lips moved against his, he watched her eyes flutter close and her hands wrapped around his neck. Her fingers buried into his hair, pulling on the strands, whilst her body moved closer to his.

He broke away from her. What was she doing?

“There’s nothing between me and John.” Her breathing hefted out. “There isn’t going to be anything between me and John.”

After a second, she flinched and started avoiding eye contact with him.

“Is there something going on?” he asked, concern filling his voice. She… she didn’t mean those words, did she?

She didn’t answer the question. Instead, she said, “I want to learn more about you. What about your ability?”

She giggled and he went with the change in conversation, but if John ever found out about what was going on between them, he would be dead.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> 2019 words.
> 
> I'm onto the third notebook with this series, so the word count might change from the average, but I aim for about 2000 words per chapter.
> 
> If you can tell, I had little idea of what to name this chapter. I'll be posting the next chapter next week. 


	39. Misunderstood

Maeve’s voice rang through the phone.

What the fuck was she doing? Did she not mean to answer the call? Why didn’t she leave it to ring out then? Why did she not want to answer his calls or texts?

Who was she with?

She apologised to someone. She wasn’t apologising to John because she didn’t want to answer his call. She addressed it to someone else, like when someone apologises for having to take a phone call but a lot more quick. She didn’t want to answer the phone to him. His heart fell.

If she was with another guy alone, he would kill him in front of her. She was his. He wouldn’t have any more betrayals.

Blood boiled. His mind continued to run on only steam.

He needed her here. Everything was going down hill. He needed her sweet voice filling his ears and her touch running through his hair.

He was the only one who was allowed to enjoy her presence.

He should invite her out to Woaba Boaba. He would pay for her. He was fairly certain she wasn’t on a scholarship for Wellston, but he wasn’t going to ask about her financial situation.

“Heeey.” Ella’s weight suddenly pushed down on the mattress next to him. She leant on his shoulder, looking over to where his phone screen glowed. “Is that you girlfriend? She’s hot.”

“Ella, don’t be creepy,” he shot back, leaning away and placing the phone’s screen against his chest to hide it from her sight.

“What?” she responded, not bothering to pronounce the ‘t’. With more of the bed free, the blonde swung her legs up on to duvet she sat on, resting her feet on the pillows, and leant back onto his legs. “She’s hot. Am I not allowed to be attracted to people?”

“She’s my girlfriend. Your future sister in law.” He glared down into her dark brown eyes. “That would be incest, so don’t be creepy. And can you sit up? I don’t like you lying on me.”

“Isn’t she being my future sister in law a bit of a stetch. She’s been ignoring your calls all day, hasn’t she? She clearly doesn’t like you. Did you blackmail her?” She giggled. “Plus I’m five foot. There’s at least an extra foot of the bed for you to sit on without touching me and it is a double bed. You could try the other side.”

“I was here first,” he responded, turning his head away from her in defiance. “Anyway, she likes me. Otherwise, she wouldn’t have agreed to be my girlfriend.

“And she’s the best person I’ve ever met.”

“Did you blackmail her?” she asked, throwing everything else he said away. She removed any teasing tone she could have had before from her voice.

“No.” He felt her gaze continue to drill into him as he avoided her eyes by staring at the wall. “We bargained. That’s what couples do.”

“Isn’t it called compromising?”

“I would reveal my ability if she would make our relationship public. That’s a compromise and she agreed to it. We got a thing we both wanted from each other, which is also bargaining,” he explained, leaning back on his hands.

“Okay.” Ella dat up and turned to face him, crossing her legs on the bed. “What is this about her being the best person you’ve ever met? If she’s better than me, I want to meet her.”

“She won’t hurt me,” he answered. He did not want to feel that again. He hated the nightmares.

“That’s a low standard.”

He turned to the blonde and she smirked at his attention on her.

“What do you mean?” he asked. It made perfect sense. If they didn’t… then they were a good person.

“It’s not how much they care about you or what they have done you or even what they have done for people in general. It’s just whether they will hurt you,” she replied, throwing her hands up in the air and falling onto the bed behind her. Her head hit the pillow. “How can you tell that someone won’t hurt you? That’s a shitty reason to trust someone. It’s so faulty.”

“Like you would know.” He rolled his eyes at her.

“Maybe I don’t, according to you,” she responded, spitting out the last word. She pulled herself up to sitting with her arms out the last world. She pulled herself up to sitting with her arms crossed. “But I should have an idea. People can hurt you by accident. They don’t realise the meaning or weight behind their words or actions – especially if its individualised and you should know that. You are one of those cases.

“We both are examples of those cases. We both have triggers we avoid. If you aren’t going to tell them that certain things upset you into putting up shields against them, you can’t blame them for doing that. They don’t know not to do that.”

“It’s common sense,” he replied, growling under his breath.

“They are not mind readers,” she responded back, glaring at him in a constant stare. “In fact, I think you want them not to have a mind reading (telepathic) ability.”

“But why would one listen to what someone else has to say about their friend when they have known that person to be manipulative in the past and believe it without checking or question. Then not listen to their friend when they ask their friend for an explanation?” he asked her. His fists clapsed at his sides as anger boiled over in his blood.

“Good point. That should have be common sense,” she replied, avoiding eye contact with him as she stared at the wooden floor.

Suddenly, a spark set off a chain of excitement bursting through his veins and he reached forward to her waist. He cudded her against his body as he pushed them both against the duvet of the black bed. A smile rose on his face as he nuzzled into her honey gold hair.

“I forgot about your mood swings.”

Ella left the room after a few hours. It had genuinely taken that long to escape John’s hug, though there had been no parents to help this time.

She hated what Claire had done to him. He had never been this clingy before then. Claire had acted like she was the victim, but gave no remorse to ruining John’s life. The doctor had stated that John wouldn’t be able to drive and that looked like it would remain for the majority of his life. The flashbacks weren’t going away.

Not like she was at the docitor’s appointment.

Though her mother wasn’t really there much, she remembered the yelling that rang through the house after John’s first suicide attempt. To this day, she didn’’t understand whether John did actually try to kill himself or just self-harmed.

Claire was too absorbed in herself. How would she not see the emotional harm she caused? Did she walk around perfectly fine with her actions? It had been two years; she probably had moved on.

She wanted that stupid girl to deal with something that forced her down for the majority of her life.

The girl never understood him. She never cared about him. She only wanted to climb up the hierarchy and she couldn’t do that herself, so she manipulated the first guy her ability predicted would be a powerful late bloomer into being her best friend and made him form a crush on her. Then when it backfired (‘cause no one thinks a late bloomer could hold resentment to those who mistreated him but it’s wrong when they copy the only actions they have known from the majority of their peers for all of their school life and have had no one explain why their peers were in the wrong (they were the only ones punished for their actions) or gave them another outlet for their rightfully built up anger) she manipulated her victim in order to throw him away in the pieces she left him.

She didn’t stay by him ijn the hard times. She didn’t witness him talking to the wall, crying. She didn’t see the pain etched across his face every day. She didn’t hear each conversation each time and realise that he was repeating the same conversation over and over again.

She didn’t know him when he was young.

_At some point when she was around two years old, her dad left her in the living room of the time to head to the kitchen. Not the best decision: she was clumsy since she had been born. Still, he did need to cook dinner._

_Her eyes floated over the clutter of the space from where she sat up on the sofa. Every object was in black and white; it was either nothing or the most interesting thing in the world._

_That went for the wooden train set that John was pushing one of the toy trains along. Words split out of his mouth, a conversation to the game. The words lodged in her ears, unintelligible sounds now though then were incredible words her older brother spoke. She slide off the sofa and crawled across the carpet onto the wooden floor._

_One tiny hand reached out to the train that John had just left go. She started to reverse as she made choo choon noises to follow the train’s path along the track when the wailing burst forth._

_Her eyes lifted up to where the ravenette curled up into a ball, rocking with each sob that racked his body. He flinched almost every few seconds as if hit with a strick or something but she was the only one around._

_“Hey, what’s going on?” Will turned around the corner from where the kitchen stood. A spoon clattered against the floor. “Oh God, don’t –”_

_She burst into tears._

_Footstesp rushed forward and hands were beneath her arms. She sat on Will’s knee as his whispers of comfort filled her ears and his hand stroked the top of her honey gold hair._

_“It’s fine. It’s fine. Nothings happened,” he whispered against her hair. HE placed a kiss against her hair. Her sob broke._

_“John…” Intially, he was prepared to tell John off, but then he glanced up and trailed off._

_“John, come here,” he cautiously spoke, offering his hand out to the young boy. John glanced up, huge gold eyes that reflected the terrified world around them, and shuffled back._

_Leaning forward, his hand grasped around John’s arm and pulled him towards his hug. Ella’s small hands clasped onto John’s shirt as Will hugged them both close._

_“John, what happened?” he asked once both of their crying had calmed down. Ella glanced up into those gold eyes expectantly._

_“They blew up the train.” He burst down into sobs._

_Silence filled through the air. Confusion met the circkets._

_“Train fine,” Ella answered after the pause, pointing towards where the train was left on the track._

It wasn’t until several years later, maybe a decade, where she truly understood what had happened on that day. Though their mother didn’t have much contact with them when they were younger, a few moths before the incident her mother ad taken them to a family gathering where their cousins (probably once or twice removed) attended. They were a few years older than John at the time and they ended up playing with a train set. One of them had the idea to blow up the train with his ability when John was holding it. So they did that. Then proceeded to beat him up and no one intervened.

He stopped acting the event out or having flashbacks to it after a few weeks after that day. She didn’t know when exactly.

If Claire knew of that event and the others, would she have done what she did? Maybe she is enough of a shitty person that she would have.

Her mom insisted on sending her to a private school after John was expelled. She thought that a private school would care more about their students well being than a public school. New Bostin hadn’t cared about John’s, but she guessed NBG had cared about hers.

NBG was the school she attended before what would now be Wellston. The local girls’ private high school. New Bostin Girls.

She was happy for Ciana. She was the Jack when she joined and later became the Ace (the replacement for King in an all girl system) just before she dethroned the new Queen at the time. She enabled her to see what was wrong and why she shouldn’t copy others actions (which she had been doing). It was easy to view high tiers as worse mid tiers, but Ciana showed that what she thought wasn’t the case.

Her mother started training her in her last year of middle school after her brother was expelled. She seemed to realise that two of her children became God tiers against the odds and she wanted to try if Ella would be a God tier too. Well, aura manipulation did depend on how much effort you put in to your ability, but she was a high tier now. She would be a God tier by next year.

As she walked down the corridor of the boys’ dormitories, she smiled. What would a new school be like?

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> 2236 words.
> 
> I want to say that Ella is bias. There is things that both sides in that did wrong and as John's sister, Ella's bias. She also didn't experience both sides as she is two years younger than John.
> 
> I also made up the other PTSD flashback that John had. John might have had other PTSD in the past. PTSD like symptoms can go away within a few weeks after the incident that caused it and if it doesn't, therapy is recommended. This is according to the research I did on it.
> 
> Next week, the story returns back to Rei and Mary.


	40. The Wolf

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Warning: molestation  
> A line will show where it begins and ends

Wandering through the streets of the dead city, a shiver raced up Mary’s spine. She brought her arms up to herself, crossing her arms to keep the heat in.

A light grey cloud formed crystals with a puff out of her mouth.

“Would you like my jacket?” Rei asked as he glanced over to her.

“I’ll be fine.”

Rei raised an eyebrow as her eyes glowed gold. She held up a single finger and a flame brust forth.

“Oh, did you earn to do that after Wellston?” Rei questioned, who she had never shown it to before. They hadn’t kept in contact after he left Wellston, which was something she regretted every day after their last goodbye. She also knew that the name of the ability ‘fire claws’ didn’t really suggest that she can set a fire without producing her claws, but not everyone was a God tier.

“In my fourth year,” she answered, smiling up.

Her heart fluttered like a butterfly in a hurricane. His gaze rested on her. That high school crush was returning. If it had ever left.

Maybe it had never went. There had never been anyone quite like Rei. Everyone was compared to him.

There had certainly been attractive men who had an interest in her for her level and ability, but had turned away in giust at finding out she was not only a late bloomer but her dad was a cripple as well as and her mom was in disgrace (something about bad genes). Some of them hadn’t cared about that and preferred her personality (and looks), but neither of them made it through.

No, there was no one else that was quite like Rei. He had left a high expectation though. She probably she should stop comparing her boyfriends to him. He had made her feel cared for so much by someone who wasn’t in her close family that she had wanted to make him feel the same. She wanted to return his kindness.

That was a better description of a relationship than many others she had been in except for the fact that they hadn’t been dating. She needed to stop comparing her relationships to him. She didn’t even know if he returned her feelings.

“Spectres!”

The screeching voice rang through Mary’s ears. She flinched. Pain stubbed throughout her. She bumped into Rei’s shoulder.

“Okay, okay,” his voice whispered against her ear, hot breath heating the bare skin of her ear. His fingers lightly gripped her wrist. “We’re going to run.”

“I can gather that,” she responded. “Where are we heading?”

“I don’t know yet,” he replied, dropping her hand.

Mary found herself running next to Blue when the group soon broke up in panic as they raced to the outskirts of the city. Initially, they hit a field, but in the line of sight at the end of this field was a line of trees. Beyond it was more trunks covered in the thick dark bark that belonged to these trees.

She darted into the cover of the trees behind Blue and dodged between the trees. After a few minutes, Blue glanced at her and gestured for her to hide behind the tree next to her.

She remained silent, looking directly at Blue.

There was nothing creepy about these woods but her heart still thumped. Light filtered through the leaves and she could easily see: a calm setting. However, those creatures lived among the trees, tracking them, and there were spectres in the town. Then there was what Blue had spotted behind them.

Wait, where was everyone else?

She scanned over Blue more closely. Maybe the mint hoodie could hide a knife but where would she have got a knife? In reality, she only needed to be concerned about her ability.

“We may have lost the rest,” Blue said. They had waited there for a few minutes and there was still no one else.

“What do you mean? How did we do that?” she whispered back. She shuffled around the tree and glanced over her shoulder. There was no one there. How was she supposed to find Rei again?

“We scattered,” she answered, keeping her voice to an audible whisper too. “We typically create a plan of where to go with the spectres but there were no group agreed locations this time.”

“Oh,” she responded. “What are we going to do?”

A howl broke out through the air. The leaves fluttered in the wind. Paws hit the ground in a growing rhythm. Louder, faster.

Her heart raced.

Blue pointed her pale finger towards where the city lay. She nodded and Blue burst froth from her hiding spot with Mary close behind.

Air rushed in and out of her lungs as her legs pumped beneath and her arms moved next to her sides. She was quickly catching up to Blue and soon she was running next to Blue. Then she was ahead of her.

She bursted out into the street, though the sides of two shops.

Blue was at least ten metres behind her once she skidded to a halt and turned around to look.

A purple nose poked out of the leaves of the trees. Then the furry body ran out of the trees, but Blue was still outside of the skirts of the city.

Blue’s silver eyes stared at her in widening fear. Was there something behind her?

Her foot hit the pavement and she took a long stride and started slowing herself down.

“It was behind me, wasn’t it?” Blue gasped out, staring up at her as her hands rested on her knees. She was bent at the knees slightly with her leaning over to catch her breath.

“Ye-es,” she replied whilst moving her gaze from her fellow person to the gap between the shops.

The wolf was sticking its head between the walls and was quickly pushings its body through.

Her heart froze. Her jaw hung open.

“What’s the matte-” Blue began to ask.

A scream ripped forth from her vocal cords as her gold eyes never left that purple fur belonging to a body of a gigantic being with small beady black yees.

“Shut pup.” Blue’s breath hit against her ear. Her hand covered her mouth as her voice drained out.

The wolf took a step out onto the road and sniffed the air. I didn’t notice they were there. It had no sense of smell (or at least limited) but similarly it didn’t see.

Only sound. She could have given it away. She had caused it to know she was there.

Blue’s hand pointed towards the centre of the city. They both prepared to run until they couldn’t.

“Hey!” shouted Braylon as he charged down the street from where the road lead out to another city, though the road ended with overgrown wildlife.

“Shut up!” Blue yelled back, changing her focus ot the man.

The ground shaked as the wolf took a step forward and then another until it had taken the short walk to stuff it’s nose into the two girl’s faces.

“Fuck,” Blue mumbled.

Mary lanced at her, but the wolf immediately turned it’s attention to the blue haired girl. Fear pounced onto Mary as it’s jaw opened in preparation to bite her head off.

Eyes flashed gold. Claws burst through, tearing through the skin. Heat swam around her hands as she slashed over the chest of the wolf. Then she sprinted, dragging her claws of the skin of the side of the wolf.

A black liquid spluttered out of the two cuts, dripping down in huge globs. The ground smoked white when the drops hit the ground.

“Wait, I’ll help!” shouted Braylon, who had frozen in place when he had realised what he had done. He jumped forward and shoot a glowing ball out of his hand. The ball charged forward, racing through the air, and shoot through the main body of the wolf.

Mary watched it tear through to the other side, lighting up the thick black blood. A smile took over her face as she jumped up other the back of the wolf. Her fingers gripped onto the tuffs of fur as the wolf started stomping in reaction of what must have been a mix of pain (if it could feel pain) and trying together off its back. She wasn’t leaving unless it was on her own terms.

She pulled her arm up, claws out, and then threw it down. The claws dug into the flesh. The flesh caved down from the force of the stab like rotten flesh.

She screamed. The black liquid touched a finger as it bubbled up over the claws and pain seared through her finger. She drew back the claw to discover that over half of each claw had remained in the wolf’s back.

The wolf reared and she lost her grip. She slipped. Falling through the air, the wind whistled past her ear.

Bang. Pain spurted through her head.

Blue stared as the wolf started struggling, attempting to shake Mary off it. Mary had screamed. Something had happened.

She was hiding away from the wolf. With one bite, she would be gone, dust in the wind. And she didn’t want to touch that steaming black blood that was creating dips in the road from where it had landed.

Then she glanced up to see Mary falling through the air – helpless. She crashed to the ground. She did not get up again.

The ember of fear that ignited in her was quickly smothered. Why would she care about Volcan? She was her killer! She killed many good people. Many people who were trying to help others. She didn’t deserve her sympathy.

Clearly, their killer ended up in the same dead world as her victims. That had been why her story was so weird. She had to lie because they wouldn’t have recognised her superhero name because she would have made it up.

She had reacted badly to Braylon saying she was cripple (an educational guess from the lie she had told) because she was an elitist piece of shit. She thought everyone below elite tier was dirt beneath her feet, so she hated being called one. She clearly had never read W. H. Doe’s work and bene able to read over every word thousands of times to see the hundreds of meanings in the books. She had taken action after years of unrest of watching low tiers get beat up, but Mary had only taken action to ensure her place in her life.

Ten mini light ball shot through the air, streaking light behind them, and blasted through the flesh of the monster. Then it rounded back and shot through the air again.

The wolf yelped and started bouncing about again.

She wrinkled her nose.

Leaping forward, her silver eyes glowed and she held her hands out in front of her. A dark blue spike that was semi-transparent formed in her hands and she ran at the wolf’s head, jumping up through the air and raising her hands above her head. The purple fur was underneath her when she drove the spike through its skull.

She sailed through the air and hit the concrete hard. She tumbled over and over again as burns seared through her elbows and knees. Eventually, she landed on her back and after a second at staring the grey eyes before she sat up.

The elbows of her sleeves were burned through as well as the knees of her jeans.

“Lillian! Are you okay?” shouted Braylon. Blue turned in the direction of thevoice to find Braylon running towards her and there was no wolf behind him.

She waited for Braylon to be next to her to wait to stand up and had Braylon help her up.

“I think I’ll be fine,” she told him as he continued to mutter to her. “Shouldn’t we address the elephant in the room? Did you see that girl’s ability? She’s Volcan. Where is she?”

“She’s unconscious. That fall she took knocked her out<” he answered. He started walking back towards where a crater had been left and she could see a pool of black blood inside. “Should we bring her back to the rest?”

“Yes, they deserve to enact their revenge on her.”

They had lives before she destroyed them. They had lived lives. They saved people Her family deserved to be ashamed to have ever cared about her.

They came to wear her body laid strewn across the concrete, blood dripped out of her head. She wanted to kick her face in.

* * *

“Do you mind if I grope her?” Braylon asked . She knew he wouldn’t care about her answer. It wasn’t like she cared what he did her. He could violate her all he wanted and she wouldn’t care.

“We’re superheroes, not rapists,” she hissed. He wouldn’t listen, but she only said it to keep her morals up.

His hand clasped onto one of her breasts and he squeezed it. His tongue ran over his lips.

“Just be quick,” she said, turning away from the sight.

* * *

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> 2183 words.
> 
> Sorry there are so many warnings recently. It's why this fanfiction is rated mature (along with other scenes that come up). Next week is another Rei and Mary chapter. 


	41. The Start of the Fall

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Warning: discussion of molestation that happened in the previous chapter.   
> A line shows where it begins and ends.

The dead superheroes had gathered in the town’s square. Rei didn’t know if the ones who had run off in different directions would look to find here (or if they could even find the town swquare). Mary was one of those. Was she even with the others?

“Look,” one of the superheroes called out.

A hand pointed towards one of the streets that lead to square. Three people were coming up the road with one held in the arms of another.

Blood dripped down from her head and left a trail of blood drops in a path from where they had went.

What had happened to her? They had no first aid to help. It was the first injury he had ever witnessed in this dead world.

“Is she okay?” Rei cried out, offering his arms to take her from Braylon. Braylon shouldn’t be near her, let alone carrying her. At least Blue (Lillian) was there; then he wouldn’t have been able to do anything.

“She’s Volcan,” Braylon spat back.

“What?” Rei immediately, jaw dropping as she stared up at the other guy. How could Mary be Volcan? Yes, she had the same ability (he guessed they had seen that) and she had the same hair and eye colour, but her hair texture was different. Maybe they thought that someone could change extremely straight hair to wavy, but that didn’t account for the fact that she had the similarly caused injuries. If she was Volcan, did they expect her to have done that to herself? Did they think she killed herself just to torment them in this weird afterlife?

They would have to admit that someone with her ability caused those injuries, which would show that Volcan could have easily killed Mary still.

“We saw her ability,” Blue announced. Colour drained from Rei’s face. Blue was a lot more believable than Braylon (given that Braylon already had a reason to dislike Mary before this). “It was the exact same as Volcan.”

“Her levels lower,” he rebutted. “It’s weaker and developed differently. They are different, though catagorised under the same name.”

“Then why did she use it exactly the same way?” Blue questioned with a smirk.

“How many minutes did you see her use her ability for?” Rei shot back. “Ten seconds. Did you knock her out yourself?”

She used it for sixty seconds before the wolf knocked her out.”

“The Wolf?”

Rei stared at the three. They had come across a wolf? Did they mean one of those that kept hunting them down when they were in any of the forests? What happened to it? They were able to escape with an unconscious Mary.

“We killed it after it knocked out Mary,” Blue continued to explain.

  
“Killed it?”

“It dissolved into this black acid like liquid that acted like its blood (I think),” she answered. “I guess it might still be alive in a pit in a road the liquid created.”

“It was on a road?”

“It was a lone wolf,” Blue replied, smiling and moving her hands as she spoke. “It didn’t like being there. I assume that they tend to avoid it.”

“But you were able to kill it?” a female voice asked, Ellie. “How did you kill it? What did it look like when it died?”

“We made a bunch of holes in its flesh,” Blue answered. Then she shrugged. “I think it dissolved into the black liquid. I don’t know. Braylon was the one who watched it at the time.”

Attention turned to Braylon as he cleared his throat. “It started splurting blood from all the holes in its body and then liquifidy into a hole that the blood had dug into the road.”

“So they can be killed?”

“Don’t know.” He shrugged. “We didn’t wait around to find out.”

“But it didn’t follow you any further?”

“It would need to regenerate,” Blue answered, taking a step forward with her hands in her pockets. “It would at least need a few minutes. We didn’t wait around.”

“But it didn’t catch your scent?”

“We’ll find out if it did,” Blue replied.

“Anyway, we need to address this bitch,” Braylon stated, dropping Mary’s body onto the concrete. Her body flopped to the floor. Completely unconscious. This could be a serious medical injury. She might be dead.

“Hey, what are you doing?” Equinox cried out. He had leapt forward in time to catch her head before it could hit the concrete like the rest of her body. “You could have killed her.”

“She’s Volcan. It doesn’t matter if it kills her,” Braylon replie.d

“Your only evidence is her ability,” Equinox responded, glaring up at the two. “Yes, she has the same hair colour and eye colour, but have you not thought about her height or body type. Those are really hard to fake without some sort of shape shifting ability.”

“She forms claws! That’s a form of shape shifiting!” Blue shouted back. She stomped her foot.

“It’s only claws. There’s no evidence that it can affect the rest of her body,” Rei replied. He came to his knees next to her fallen body. He placed a hand to her forehead. Heat; she was alive. It almost burnt his head.

“Her temperature’s rising. We need to keep it down. Does anyone have the ability to heal?”

“No, only self regeneration.”

The other replies were consistent to that. They were fighters, not doctors. They had investigated the drug line instead of healing those hurt from the attack, which lead to Volcan and their fate.

“She has self regeneration to if only she would wake up,” Rei said. Volcan had healed herself too.

Blue glared daggers at him when he glanced up.

“I guess we could question her when she wakes up,” Blue admitted. She shrugged. “Braylon, can’t you heal?”

“That’s energy manipulation, not light shot,” Braylon replied.

“It’s similar!” Blue shrugged again.

“No, it isn’t!” Braylon spat back. “It would have to start with ‘energy’ for it at all develop into energy manipulation. That’s how many manipulation abilities work.”

“Can you two stop arguing?” the girl known as Mistress Emerald (or Misci) stated. She walked up to Mary’s body and ripped part of her shirt off. “I know first aid, though I’m not sure how effective it will be on the head. Typically, those are healed with potions or abilities.”

With the stirp of shirt, she wrapped it around her forehead to the back of her head and then tied it near the front. “I hope that works.”

“We should take her to a room where I can check for other injuries,” Misci said.

At her order, Rei slipped his hands beneath Mary’s body to lift her up to chest level. He pushed himself up to standing.

“Normally, we shouldn’t move an injured person but I think it’s a good to move her this time. The concrete could cause an infection and its harder to protect here.

“There’s a hotel over there. We should go to it.”

He glanced at one of the buildings that bordered the square. It towered tall above the square, a similar height to the other buildings, with regular windows appearing on each floor that had golden curtains hanging at least partially in the window.

The doors were opened by the first two who lead the group and soon Rei walked through the door.

“You should go to the third floor if you want to be safe from any wolves appearing.” Blue suggested, though she had stopped to lean on the wall and watched them go. “They don’t get that tall, unless that one was a pup. And I think it was an adult.”

Rei nodded before he took his first step up the stair. Misci lead the way and soon they arrived to the third floor. They headed to the closest door to the stairwell, which happened to face out front.

“Place her on the bed. Make sure to place her head down carefull,” Misci ordered.

He laid her main body down on the soft duvet of the bed with moving her head down onto the feather filled pillows.

“We’re going to have remove her clothes,” Misci stated, moving to slightly lean on the bed. “I need to check her ribcage.”

There were no scissors nearby and he didn’t want to move her head again. Gripping the ends of her shirt, he attempted to tear her shirt in a line so it could be taken off without moving her head. His fingers thumbled. What if she woke up right then?

“Just do it. She’ll understand.”

He tore through the shirt so there was a line through. Then he moved to pull her arms out of the sleeves and left there mains of her shirt lying beneath her.

Heat rushed to Rei’s cheeks before he glanced away and fixed his stare to the dark cream wall.

Weight pushed onto the mattress, sending a small wave through it.

“We need to remove her bra too. The wire’s in the way.”

“The wire?” Rei asked as he turned back around. He looked over her bra to figure out how to undo it. Instead, the purple patches that seeped over the edges caught his gaze.

“Wires are in most bras. Are you a virgin or gay or something?” Misci asked before her rant fell short. “What happened to her? Didn’t she fall? Did she land on her stomach?”

“I think there would be more bruises elsewhere if that was the case,” Rei replied. Rei reached forward to unclip the bra.

“Wait a second,” Rei paused as Misci’s weight shifted on the bed. She slid off the bed and ran to the other door in the room: the bathroom.

When she came back from the room a few seconds later, she was holding a small towel.

“I thought she would prefer this,” she explained.

He nooded and she laid the towel over her chest.

“Unclip it.”

With a click, the bra slipped off. He threw it to one side, not overly caring where it landed. It wasn’t the point write now.

Then the door clicked open.

“We’re going to get some new clothes. What size are you?” a male voice asked. An orange head poked through the door.

“Size ten. Do you need Mary’s size?” Misci called back.

“Did something happen to her clothes?” he questioned.

“Yeah. It’s difficult to explain but she needs a new top. Rei, you shopped with her last time, did you not? Do you know what size she is?”

“I think it was a medium.” Heat rushed to Rei’s face.

Misci sighed exasperated. “Just go to a shop that sells small, medium and large as a sizes instead of numbers. I’m a medium too.”

“Okay,” a female voice replied and the orange head was pushed back. Daisy, who had flowing silver hair, poked her head into the room. “Does she not need a new bra too?”

“No, it looks to be intact for the fact that Rei threw it several metres.” His face was burning up.

“Oh god.” Daisy joined in the laughing that Kendric, the orange haired guy from before, had started.

“Here’s the ice pack,” Daisy said. Misci jogged back to grab the ice pack from her hand. “Anyway, we’ll get going. See you later.”

Their footsteps rang against the floor, muffled by the carpet, as they left to leave the building.

Misci walked back to the bed, going to the opposite side of the bed to him, and placed her knee on it before placing the ice pack on her forehead. “I hope this will work.”

Silence took over as Rei waited for her next instruction, but she didn’t say another word, instead staring down at where her knee rested on the duvet of the bed.

“This is the time I’ll have to admit that I wanted her top of to check for broken ribs as she fell, but I have no clue how to check for those,” Misci stated after a pause of silence. “It could be bruising or based on touch, but I don’t want to touch her in case it makes it worse.”

“Maybe we should check what caused those other bruises,” he suggested. There was still a heat on his face.

“Yeah. Can you look away?”

Rei focused his gaze on the plain cream wall that with further inspection seemed to have a tint of gold like the rest of the furniture in the room. The curtain were a particularly transparent gold that had a thicker gold material behind it. Then the bed covers had an ivy gold pattern on top of white material.

* * *

Misci gasped.

“What happened?” Rei asked. He was nervous to glance back in case she hadn’t placed the towel back.

“They’re finger marks. The bruises are in the shape of fingers.”

“Braylon,” he grumbled.

“Maybe she was still alive but unconscious when she was dying, someone came along and did it without helping her.” Misci grasped at straws.

“She hadn’t complained about the pain before,” he replied. It could only be Braylon.

“I just find it difficult to believe that Blue allowed that.”

* * *

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> 2188 words.
> 
> I'm posting this on a Monday mostly due to how dark the last chapter got and because I might not be able to post on Friday this week. If I don't post on Friday, the chapter will come out on Saturday, but I'll probably still be able to get it out on Friday. It is also back to the alive world next week with Maeve and the upcoming cafeteria scene with John. I'll also be posting on Monday and Friday the week after that.
> 
> I might start adding a peek at the next chapter at the end of the last chapter, though I'm not sure yet.
> 
> I really liked writing Misci as a character. I kept going through the previous two chapters in the world of ghosts as I was fairly certain I mentioned another female superhero other than Blue, but I never found another one (though I was going through the notebook so it could be my terrible handwriting that prevented me from spotting the other one). Still, I like that I was able to include a character like her.
> 
> Thank you for reading.


	42. Butterfly

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Warning: offensive language (more than normal). Word repeated multiple times over and over.  
> A line shows where it begins and ends.

A butterfly fluttered in front of Maeve’s face. It’s wings flapped gently as it floated along with the wind current to a flower that clung onto the branch of the tree high up off the ground.

Its wing had a black outline lining each of it’s orange, red or gold segments: square, rectangle, circle or triangle. Like fire. A beautiful insect.

“Maeve!” shouted John from where she guessed had to be across the courtyard. She grumbled under her breath.

She had been enjoying her day until that moment.

She hadn’t answered his calls all yesterday or today, except for that one time when she had _accidentally_ answered the call. He was not going to be happy about that. Quite the opposite of happy.

“What did you do?” Remi whispered in her car next to her. Both of their eyes were trained on the raven haired guy. “He seems to like you, which is fairly impossible to get him to do, but he’s angry at you and doesn’t hate you.”

Seriously! (How the fuck did Remi read that?) There was Seraphina too. He liked her and was angry at her. Or at least he liked her. Maybe Remi had a point.

“Hi!” she squeaked as John was a few metres away from her. That wasn’t going to help her.

“You didn’t answer my calls or texts yesterday or this morning,” John stated, growling afterwards. His fists were clenched at his side. He was standing half a metre away from her.

“I was at school,” she replied. She was paying attention in school, so she couldn’t be distracted by constant calls on her phone. She had to turn it off due to the constant ringing. Was John not attending classes or did he have a billion frees first thing on a Monday?

Before that, though, she had purposefully avoided his calls and texts.

“Yesterday was a Sunday,” John responded. Was he truly going to be nit-picky?

“I was studying,” she quickly came up with. “Do you know how annoying it is to receive an infinite amount of calls as you are trying to focus? On SCHOOOL SUBJECTS!!!”

“You were with someone,” he shot back. One of his fists clasped harder together.

“Me and Remi were studying together,” Maeve replied. She made sure to make direct eye contact into those glimmering gold eyes.

She felt Remi’s gaze drilling into her back as if to say ‘why did you throw me under the bus?’ Of course, that probably was what she was thinking.

“Really?” John asked, crossing his arms over his chest.

Was her really doubting her?

“I thought Remi was with Blyke in his room the majority of the day yesterday.”

Even if that was true, how would he know that Remi was in Blyke’s room all of yesterday? It wasn’t like he shared a dorm with Blyke…

At least, she had never seen Blyke in John’s dorm. Didn’t he share a dorm with Isen?

What would John do if he found out about her and Isen?

“No, I was with Maeve yesterday,” Remi covered for her.

John’s gold eyes widened, shock morphing across his face. What had he been hoping? Shouldn’t he prefer that she was with just another girl?

“Okay, I’ll see you later then,” John replied, his voice down. Did he want to break up with her?

She would be glad with that.

He walked away from them.

“Why would the cripple speak to Maeve like that? Does he not know that she’s the Queen? Or a high tier? He should cower from just merely being near her.”

“You know, I heard that John has an ability today.”

“Guess he could develop one, but he would still be low tier though?”

“No, I meant he’s Joker!”

“Are you kidding me? Did he suddenly develop a high tier one? Why didn’t he just come out straight away?”

“If it’s true, he must have hid it all along.”

Whispers burst out across the courtyard as John walked away from them.

Is this what if felt like to be a normal high tier? People spread rumours about their actions. She had only had rumours about her body and family (and how she was entitled). She already hated what they were going to say about her.

However, it would be effective to spread the news about John being Joker. It was already working.

“You should tell him you don’t share his feelings,” Remi whispered against her ear as John exited the courtyard. Her elbow hit against her side. “He’s going to get the wrong idea.”

She nodded, gulping. She couldn’t do that.

“Are you okay?”

She glanced up into her bright red eyes.

“It’s too late to turn back.”

Remi’s further words hit deaf ears as her eyes focused back on the butterfly. Its wings fluttered up into the air.

A ball flew through the air. A red meteor.

Her violet eyes widened as it rushed through the air to where the butterfly flapped. The red ball crashed into it forcing the butterfly to flatten against its curved surface, and smushed the butterfly against the ground as it landed for its first bounc.

“Watch where you’re aiming!” Remi shouted at the two boys.

“Sorry,” one of who she supposed to be mid tiers replied. She thought they were likely first years (less defined features then the guys in her years and much shorter).

At least they were playing with a ball instead of fighting. She had no clue whether they had similar levels, but levels blasted up in high school. She knew form her own ability. They could be friends from middle school, which couldn’t mean they had very different levels, but they were also their first years so their levels wouldn’t be crazy in only the spring.

Though, she didn’t know if ball games were allowed this close to the windows.

“You know, you killed a butterfly!” Remi growled as one of the boys rushed over to collect the ball.

His face whitened in horror at the ex-Queen’s words – for at least the reason that it was two high tiers that were confronting them. Hopefully, rolling it over the ball discover a smush of a butterfly was what caused the imprinted horror in his face.

“Oh,” he said. “I’m sorry.”

He grabbed the ball and dashed across the courtyard back to his friend.

“What did you do to scare a person like that, Remi?” Blyke called out as he exited the school building with Isen behind him. He ran over to them with Isen staring after him as he strolled along to the group.

Once Blyke was next to them and chatting heavily with Remi, she allowed her eyes to trail off. The boys had left the courtyard and had carried the ball off with them.

That poor butterfly. It had no idea what was coming.

They only saw it as a pretty object to look at and didn’t care about its life. It just came by and they wanted it to land on their fingers. It never did. They wanted to receive attention from it without caring what it felt.

Only to crush it under foot.

Fingers threaded through her own and she glanced up into amber eyes. She pulled her hand out of the grip and took a step to the side.

Quickly, she looked around the courtyard. Was no one looking at them? She couldn’t tell. What if they talked about it and it became a rumour? What if John heard about it? Would he believe it?

What would he do if he did believe it?

“Hey, are you okay?” Isen asked.

She glanced down with heat rushing in her cheeks. Did Isen have an issue with this? As long as they kept it a secret, everything would be fine.

Isen reached forward and his wet lips touched her cheek.

She pushed him away.

“Do you not want to do this?” Isen asked. She looked back up into his eyes. What did he mean? Was he suggesting not dating? But she wanted to continue this. Life was so short.

“I don’t want to go public yet,” she replied. Her eyes locked onto her shoes.

“Oh, okay.” Isen’s face fell and he glanced away. “I guess we didn’t make it official.”

“Do you want to meet up this evening?” she asked, smiling fakely. Why the heck did he act like that was a breakup line?

“Yes, why? Where?” Isen replied, words tumbling out of his mouth. His eyes had widened into fright. Why was he acting like she wanted a break up?

“I wanted to go on another date,” she answered. She placed her hand beneath his chin and moved his face so he was looking into her eyes. “And you can pick the location.”

“Oh.”

A blush rushed up to his cheeks and she smiled in a silent laugh. She almost reached forward to hug him.

“We can meet in my room and watch movies,” he suggested.

She nodded as the bell rang to signal the end of break.

Maeve rushed through the corridor, bouncing with every step.

Rumours floated around the corridor. Apparently, John had gotten into a fight with Zeke, who had heard the rumours and wanted to prove them wrong. She hated that guy. She wished John had smashed his face into the ground.

But her plan was working. The numbers of fake jokers would decline until there was none left and hopefully mid tiers and elite tiers would realise that low tiers had emotions too.

Of course, they were idiots. At least the ones that were bullies. They only cared about themselves and how to benefit themselves.

They feared those above them yet acted like they didn’t have their own emotions. They talked about high tiers like they were celebrities, but celebrities didn’t attend high school. And didn’t hear every whisper about them. And had teams to handle their social media and stuff. She didn’t know enough about it.

All she wanted to place into this school is respect for everyone. Each fight would be consented to by both parties and people would look down upon heavily insulting others in front of them. Or talking negatively behind someone’s back too.

Though, maybe someone would critise her for siding with John, who beat others up, but she could see differences in his actions. In New Bostin, he would only attack those who disrespected him (mostly by insulting him or talking behind his back). It wasn’t like those crazy parents, who would treat someone below human for not treating them like a god, for they would treat him like he didn’t have emotions because he was a high tier. Like high tiers were beyond human. Or they would say he was still a cripple to them, even though they swore by respecting someone with a higher level by them like an authority figure.

She had lost her point, hadn’t she? He was doing what she said she wasn’t. Well, he should be easier to talk out of it than some of those mid tiers. Maybe she could get Ella or Ciana to talk him down – or even herself.

She hated Claire though. Why would someone listen to you when you were doing the exact same thing you were talking them out of? Fight fire with fire. Literally. Whoo! Just get the entire forest on fire in an instant.

She entered the cafeteria and got some food that was being served. Sitting next to Remi, Blyke and Isen, she ate through her like she was running late to something. John could come in at any moment and he was expecting her to kiss him. Would he be okay with waiting until the eating part of lunch is over?

Her heart thumped.

Did he mean the period of lunch or in the cafeteria? What would everyone think of her for kissing someone in the cafeteria? John would surely turn it into a full on make out session. Would she be a slut? Of course. She was always a slut.

* * *

Slut.

Slut.

Slut.

Slut.

Slut.

Slut.

Slut.

Slut.

Slut.

Slut.

Slut.

Slut.

Slut.

Slut.

Slut.

Slut.

Slut.

Slut.

Slut.

Slut.

Slut.

Slut.

Slut.

* * *

Pain jabbed into her ribs. “Maeve, are you okay?”

She glanced up from where she had death glared her mash potatoes into Isen’s amber eyes. Her heart fluttered happily.

“I’m just under a lot of pressure currently,” she replied. A small smile formed on her face and she smiled it up at him.

“You can talk to me about it whenever you want.”

Her heart melted. She couldn’t believe she had someone like him.

John walked into the room. All eyes turned to him. Maybe it was too many rumours. He had never acted well to rumours.

Quickly, John had grabbed his food and was sitting down. She had finished her own food.

“I need to go,” she told the group before placing her plate away. Then she walked to John’s table.

Sitting down, she could feel all eyes on her.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> 2177 words.
> 
> I almost forgot I was supposed to post a chapter today, so its a tad later than I would normally post (but its only 7pm so I didn't almost not post today). I did say that I might be posting on Saturday, but I was mostly likely to post on Friday so I did make Friday. 
> 
> If you're confused where Mary went, I posted that chapter on Monday. I'll post another chapter next Monday as well.
> 
> Thank you for reading.


	43. Monster

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Warning: physical abuse  
> A line shows where it begins and ends.

John stared down at Zeke. He kneeled on his knees, begging for his life. Not like he planned on actually taking his life; he didn’t want to be arrested again for an actual crime.

Before the idiot could speak again, John turned away. This seemed to feel like what Maeve wanted. She was going for a much simpler approach but this probably did it better.

She had to go through with the cafeteria scene now. He had done more than she asked for. He had done better. She could not back out now.

Anyway he had to call Ella in this free. She was currently at a hotel room his mom had rented out along with his dad. He was fairly certain they had two rooms though. He hoped they did. He wanted his parents to be together again.

Ella had been in and out of Blyke’s room yesterday and he doubted she was going in to talk with Blyke or even no one at all. She would find Remi more entertaining to tease and talk with in general.

She had come in just after he had called Maeve, so she would know whether Remi was in Blyke’s room or his and Blyke’s shared dorm. He would catch out Maeve and she would have to admit which guy she was with. He would make an example out of him. Maeve would only hand out with him.

If he controlled who she was with, she wouldn’t turn out like Seraphina. She wouldn’t be influenced by people wanting to hurt her and him. He would only be his.

His phone rang out as he sat on a table in an empty classroom.

“John, it’s the middle of the school day,” Ella said down the phone. “Are you missing class or something?”

She yawned.

“Did you just wake up?” he questioned, a slight laugh to his voice.

“Shut up. It’s only eleven.”

“It’s a Monday. You would normally be in class now.”

“But I’m not. It’s a free holiday.”

“Where’s mom?” Aren’t you supposed to be at a meeting today?”

“She’s talking to the headmaster now. In _the_ meeting. She’s trying to get me in by the end of the week. I think. She’s using money as a bribe.”

“I got in almost purely based on my ability. I know 7 was extremely rare at that age, even in general, but 5.5 is rare too. You would be the 4th strongest in the school. 5th when Seraphina gets her ability back.”

“Seraphina’s got her ability back,” Ella words were initially laced with confusion until her words hit clarity by the end. “She was terrifying on Saturday night.”

“Oh, okay. Anyway, was Remi with Blyke all of yesterday?” he asked once he sensed it was a good point to bring it up.

“Think so,” she replied. “I didn’t see her leave and she had to be really quick if she did leave at any point before they both left at around 6pm. Never saw them come back, though it wasn’t like I stayed there that much longer.

“Is this about Maeve? If she lied about who she was with, are you sure you’re not being too controlling. If she was with a guy and felt the need to lie, are you jumping to conclusions?”

“I’m not,” he growled back. “If she felt the need to lie about being with a guy, then there was something going on between them. I have the right to find out if my girlfriend is cheating.”

“Don’t blame me for trying to warn you. Bye.”

“See you later.”

The call rang dead.

A lie meant Maeve was hiding something. If she was hiding something, then he couldn’t trust her. He needed to find out if he could trust her.

The bell for lunch rang and the teacher dismissed the class. As he gathered up his notes into a binder, eyes drilled into the back of his head. Why did he have to share this class with Seraphina?

She was still acting weird and he got that she was mad that he lied, but her insults towards Maeve were horrible. He had the right to defend his girlfriend and he could be (should be) angry at her for that.

His locker was on the opposite side of the building to the classroom. This involved going down a staircase, which was on the way there anyway. But still, he would be later than most.

So, he decided to take his time. He didn’t want to be near Seraphina any longer than was needed for class. He didn’t even want to be in the same room with her.

Finally, he turned up to the cafeteria.

Maeve was sitting with Remi, Blyke and a rat. That wouldn’t last for long once it was revealed that they were in a relationship. Blyke and Isen wouldn’t want to associate with her and Remi spent the most of her time around them. They would reject Maeve.

He wouldn’t have to worry about them manipulating her. Plus she would spend more time with him at school.

Maeve had already finished her lunch. He was going to have to eat quickly them to meet up with her.

As soon as he sat down with a tray of food at an empty table, eyes were drilling into him. Everyone was whispering about him. What were they saying? What did they think?

He was a _monster_.

They were all calling him a monster. Blood rushed around his body as a pounding filled his ears, blocking out every other noise. _He was a monster._ He was a _monster_. He should destroy the monster. He should jump.

“Hey, John,” Maeve whispered next to his ear. She poked his cheek. “Are you okay? I’m here.”

His head turned to look into her violet eyes. When did she arrive? Is that why everyone was looking at him? Were they wondering what they were doing together? Was it clear he was King now?

The whispers were growing in level by the second. What were they saying? He couldn’t focus.

Was he a _monster_?

“Hey, take a deep breath,” she whispered to him. Her hand stroked his upper back with a slow and gentle stroke over and over again.

There was a hot flush to her cheeks. She didn’t like the attention they were getting, did she? Maybe he should have asked her for a kiss in a courtyard. It would be over quicker and yet still get the point across.

He picked up his apple and took a bite.

Maeve’s lips hit his cheek.

His heart jumped. He glanced at her. Well, he didn’t specify what type of kiss he wanted. At least, he didn’t remember if he did.

“Oh, sorry,” Maeve replied as she glanced down to where she now laid her hands in her lap. “Was that too early?”

“No,” he responded once he placed the apple back onto the plate. “I just wasn’t expecting it.”

“Okay, I’ll meet you somewhere else during lunch,” she said after a pause. Shuffling as she prepared to swing her legs over the bench. “Where would you like to meet?”

“You’ll stay with me.”

“That wasn’t even a question,” she whispered back, harshness piercing through her voice. “Why ‘will’? Does what I want not count?”

He stared at the apple that he had picked up again before he glanced at the lilac haired girl again.

“Can you stay with me?” he repeated, turning it into a question upon request.

She raised an eyebrow and perced her lips.

“Please,” he continued.

“Okay.” Maeve nodded as she agreed.

Soon, Maeve was leading their way out of the cafeteria as all eyes were on them. What were they thinking? Did they recognise that he was King now? Did they know that he Maeve was boyfriend and that they should not look at her?

He reached forward to Maeve’s hand and pulled her back into him. Her back crashed into his chest and he grabbed her shoulder, forcing her to turn around and face him.

Her violet eyes widened.

He crashed his lips into her dark pink ones.

She didn’t move at first but just before he was about to pull back, her lips pressed back into his. He wrapped her arms around her waist, trying to pull her close – trying to press into her body. Only Maeve’s head moved with the kiss, as if her arms were stiff at her sides.

Then she pulled back.

“Can we leave now?” she asked as she wiped saliva off her lips.

“Yes,” he replied. He grabbed her waist and walked by her side out of the room.

He had organised to meet up with Cecile, though he hadn’t told Maeve about it yet. If Maeve really wanted to be serious about this royal stuff, then this would be the perfect time to start.

Not like the other Royals ever did anything. They only inspired hate. The only thing the Royal position really offered was entitlement. They used it to control overs and beat up people at turf wars.

Then they would have an issue someone who used to be a low tier took the position. A late bloomer. It was literally the system they invented and they have a problem when a late bloomer took the position. They had invented it so the strongest were on top and when a person climbed the ranks later than most but quickly.

How was the hierarchy supposed to work if that didn’t count?

“Well, Maeve,” John started as he shut the door behind them. Maeve turned around to face him with furrowed eyebrows. “Do you want to tell the truth of who you were with yesterday?”

“I was with Remi. I’ve already told you that.” She took a seat on one of the desks.

“Ella was with Remi when I made that call.”

“Is your source Ella? You do know she is a pathological liar half the time,” Maeve replied. John took a step forward and he gazed down at the edge of her skirt. She leant back on her hands whilst looking up at him. “Wait, she’s in New Bostin. She couldn’t have been with Remi.”

“One, the reason I was calling you yesterday because my elder sister was the girl who died in the news. Why did you think I was calling you all yesterday?” he replied, voice among piercing into a yell.

Her violet eyes were widened. Her mouth fell into an ‘o’ shape.

“Two, Ella was with her when Mary was killed. It was in an area near Wellston. Remi, Blyke and…” He hesitated. “That person found her. She told them that she was my sister and she came to my dorm on Saturday night. I slept on the sofa that night and my parents flew in in the morning. She’s in a hotel room now, bu yesterday she was in and out of mine and Blyke’s room.

“Three, did you just admit that you weren’t with Remi?”

“I’m sorry.” She glanced at the table surface between her legs. “I should have picked up at least once.”

She was faking it. Maybe not entirely as she had told her he wanted to call after losing a family member, but she wasn’t sorry for spending time with some other guy.

“Who were you with?” he demanded once her eye level rose.

She tilted her head and pouted whilst spreading her legs further open.

“Don’t freak out,” she whispered after his glare continued for several minutes straight through the silence. “I was with Isen.”

* * *

His hand hit her cheek. She lost her balance, sliding off the table, and she fell, crashing into the table next to her. One of her knees knees latched onto the edge of the table she had initially sat on and which she used as leverage to not fall through the gap between the two desks. Her hand pushed herself up and he offered a hand out so she could sit back upon the table.

* * *

“We were only doing a bleedin’ school project!” she whisper-yelled at him. “I lied because I knew you were going to be like this. If you hadn’t questioned what I said, would you have hit me? I would have perfectly good reason to leave now and report you to someone.”

He stared. His heart skipped a beat.

_Keon._

“But you won’t, will you?” he asked, tilting his head at her.

“Are you sorry?” she questioned, crossing her legs.

“Yes,” he answered. “I shouldn’t have hit you.

“But if you were doing anything not in description with any guy, I’m allowed to show that you are mine,” he replied, reaching forward to cup her face.

“Stop acting so possessive!” She bated his hand away.

“What did I walk in on?” Cecile grumbled as she took a step in the room and walked over to lean on a desk.

“When did you walk in?” Maeve asked. His heartbeat was racing.

“When John was apologising,” Cecile answered like she didn’t believe what she was saying.

“Okay, that’s fine.” Maeve brushed it off, turning to smile to the cyan haired girl. “Anyway, what did you want to talk about?”

“You were the talker,” Cecile replied, furrowing her eyebrows in confusion.

“Huh. Oh.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> 2111 words.
> 
> The plot's moving forward. I'm sorry if you shipped John and Maeve. 
> 
> The next chapter will be posted on Friday and it will go back to weekly uploads after that.
> 
> I'm thinking of writing a horror movie esque unOrdinary fanfiction where in an au young adult versions of the main cast go on holiday in a house that a killers stalks them down one by one.
> 
> Thank you for reading. What do you think of this chapter?


	44. The Plan

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Warning: Physical abuse  
> A line shows where it ends and begins.

“So…” Maeve started, but why the fuck did John not discuss this with her before now? Cecile was so… cold. Could she even convince her of what she wanted?

“John didn’t tell me that we were all meeting up today,” she admitted, pointing at John in anger.

“Yeah.” She rolled her eyes with her arms crossed over her chest. “You looked to be too busy sucking each other’s faces off than hear what each other has to say.”

“Shut up!” Her face burned, flames swirling up and spinning through her head. She hopped up to standing and a growl left her mouth.

What would Isen think of that stunt? What the fuck was she doing? Shouting at other people? Growling?

“Well, what did you want to talk about?” Cecile asked. She started at her. How long did she zone out for?

Why was she basing her moral compass off of what Isen would think? They had only been on one date.

“We need to deal with the bullying,” she started, taking a deep breath before getting out off by a look Cecile gave her.

“Are you suggesting dismantling the hierarchy?” Cecile questioned. Her heart thumped under her gaze. Why did he feel so intimidated by her? She was a higher rank than her. She shouldn’t question her! “The hierarchy is the natural order.”

“It does not mean that they have to beat each other up,” she replied. She glared at Cecile. Or at least attempt to. It didn’t seem to work as an attempt to intimidate her. “Elite and mid tiers use bullying as an opportunity to be lazy and disrespectful to the hard work of those around them. Plus, the violence is generally disruptive.”

“So, are you saying you want to dismantle the hierarchy in the school without effecting the overall hierarchy?”

“No, you’re taking my words out of context. I’m saying that we need to handle the unnecessary amount of violence in the school.” She slammed her hand down onto the desk next to her.

“You do realise who is next to you, right?” Cecile continued to question.

“I specified ‘unnecessary’, right?” Maeve responded.

“So those actions were necessary?” Cecile snorted at her. “How do you support that?”

“You can ask John that,” she deflected. She took a step back. Her cheek was throbbing. A bruise would form soon.

She couldn’t allow Cecile to see it. It would heal by itself in a few seconds.

John went on some sort of rant about how the people who he beat up deserved it (not sure how he justified Remi). She didn’t even agree with Blyke and Isen, except for when they teamed up against John together with Remi. That wasn’t fair.

However, she wasn’t going to say anything against John. She didn’t want to be hit again.

She couldn’t wait to see Isen again. He would be her way through this.

She turned her cheek away from Cecile and held her hand up to it. She activated her ability, trying to keep her aura small so that Cecile wouldn’t notice. Cecile would pull shit for this (against her).

John’s eyes glanced over to her. He could sense her ability activated.

Maeve pulled her arm down as her ability went off.

She found John reaching an arm of his towards her and before she could react, his hand gripped onto her waist arm encircling her back. Her feet scuffed against the floor until she found her back against his chest.

Heat rushed to her cheeks. Flush hot.

She didn’t pay attention to John and Cecile as they talked. Maybe they were saying something important but she couldn’t care. She didn’t want him to hit her again.

She didn’t want him to do anything illegal. He had mostly good intentions. He could be a good person with someone to lead him onto the right path.

So, she had to make sure he didn’t hit her again. She had to make sure he understood that he couldn’t hit the people he cared about. She could just leave him – she wasn’t planning to stay that long – but it would back fire if she left now.

She could just imagine getting dragged throughout the school and beat up. Her ability could be used to defend her but ultimately John was stronger than her.

John could have the same aspect to his ability as Ella did. Ella was a high tier and could manipulate others abilities as well as copy others’ abilities to her. However, she struggled to copy abilities that were at all close to her own level, let alone one that was tronger than hers. One time she had watched her cough up blood because she deleted the ability she got in preparation for her fight. It was her own ability and she mostly would have preferred to go against her than Ciana.

Could John do things like that? He was a god tier so it made sense that he could do more than Ella but Ella could do a lot as a high tier – even as an elite tier. Wouldn’t it make more sense that both had taken different paths in the same ability?

She had a manipulation ability herself but other than her dad, she was the only person she knew with her ability. And with her dad, she first made contact with him a few weeks ago.

Maybe she led John on. She didn’t really think she did. At first, she wasn’t really in to what he was suggesting, but it felt nice how he touched her and she wanted more. She allowed him to touch her and she touched him.

It was fun.

But she never meant for John to get romantic feelings for her. Was it even romantic feelings? John could be reading his own emotions wrong. He hadn’t had much time to explore his own emtions.

Anyway, she couldn’t have said no in that moment. If she had not only would her own plan not happen – fall through – but she doubted she would make it out of that room that day.

Plus, if it did happen, Remi would question her a lot, but where she was.

“Maeve, are you okay?” John asked.

“I’m fine,” she replied, fixing her skirt from where it had ridden up her hips. “I just zoned out. Anyway, do you agree that we need to do eliminate the violence in the school.”

“I think it will destroy the hierarchy. You’re suggesting not putting people lower than you in their place,” Cecile responded. “You do know that the school will fall into chaos without the hierarchy. The low tiers will rise up against us and lose our position of powers.”

“Damn, you’re insecure,” John commented. She glanced at him, heart fluttering, and she looked back to Cecile just as quickly.

“We aren’t aiming to dismantle the hierarchy, so if it does get dismantle by just respecting each other, what was it really doing in the first place?” She posed the question as she slipped out of John’s grip and went to sit on a table a foot away. “People naturally look up to those with more power: whether its charisma, money, popularity or level. There will always be some form of hierarchy, whether its written into the rules or what.

“Anyway, wouldn’t it be better to vote for who would be King or Queen? Some people aren’t cut out to be in charge. The only thing the fights for the position do is make sure the strongest fights in turf wars. In fact, we may as well separated turf wars from leading the school. They have little to do with each other,” she concluded.

Cecile stared at her like she was crazy.

“And are you planning to do that?” Cecile laughed bitterly, making direct eye contact with a smirk.

“No, I doubt the school staff will allow that,” she replied. She wasn’t crazy; it was just a path of thinking. She was right too. And she wanted a new Jack. What was Cecile’s experience in leadership anyway? Leading a cult or something? Okay, that was exaggerated, but she wasn’t doing anything for her case. “Plus the authorities would step in?”

“So are you planning on overthrowing the authorities?” Cecile questioned. Maeve continued to stare at her, eyes wide with shock.

“Are you on something?” Maeve asked. It seemed like a perfectly reasonable question at the time and with a glance at John, he nodded to agree with her question. Or answer it, though it was addressed to Cecile, but he did know what she meant.

“What do you mean?” Maeve blinked. That was a question and Cecile didn’t take any offence to it. Yet.

“I was asking whether you were on drugs or something?” Maeve explained. Did Cecile know what that was?

When she was younger, one of her mom’s boyfriends had come over. He had acted weird. He exclaimed about seeings things that weren’t there and he came up with crazy theories (her mom called them conspiracy theories that he would think were crazy when he was sober). Then her mom took whatever he took too. And then she was shoved into her bedroom.

Oh, and nine months later Kingston was born.

And her mum had dumped that boyfriend by then. Something about him being able to afford all those drugs, but not an expensive jewellery set, and also not wanting to injure her children or have them taken away.

“Maeve, I’m not a crazy person. I don’t need to take some sort of pills to stop some sort of mental problem, nor do I have an illness currently!” Cecile half-shouted after half a minute of thinking. What was her problem? “If you jump to conclusions like that are you really suitable to be a leader, like you suggested earlier. Was that about you?”

“No,” she replied, growling under her breath again. She glanced to John. “Can we get a new Jack?”

“Wait, no!” shouted Cecile, leaping up and running towards the two. She grabbed her hand and squeezed it between her own two pale hands. “What’s your plan? I can do it.”

“Well, I don’t fully know yet.” Cecile’s face went from begging for what could be her life to disgust again, wrinkling her nose. “Supervising corridors should be a start, though. One of the first points would be to stop fights where one party doesn’t consent to it.”

“That’s rather simple,” Cecile commented, taking a few steps back to get out of her personal space. “Shouldn’t it be more complicated than that?”

“We need to start with convincing high and elite tiers. High tiers specifically, at least at first,” she explained. She took a deep breath, shaking her body as she gripped the edge of the table she sat on. “Then low tiers. We would need to convince one and then the others should follow. They would need to know they can rely on us high tiers to not be sent to the infirmary every day.”

To not develop major mental issues, to not turn to the drugs you don’t know about, went unsaid.

“Remi’s a nice person. She doesn’t hold anything against any tier and she’s just fun to be around.”

Two sets of daggers were glanced at her. It piereced through Maeve’s side and front.

“Maeve, what did I tell you?” John stated. His eyes bored into her neck, where her lilac hair feel to her collarbone.

Her ability flipped the switch down and hair sprouted down in route to where it quickly reached her hips. White quickly caught up. White. White again. It happened again.

“Are you okay?” John asked after she didn’t replied. She still did not reply. His hand clasped her hand. His other hand ran his fingers through hers. She didn’t look at him.

“You should really have a proper conversation with Remi,” she whispered, almost to herself but she made it audible to both of them.

Immediately, she regretted it.

Cecile didn’t respond (she knew she had had a proper conversation with Remi as Cecile was a fourth year and the strongest girl in her year so had to be the Queen and dethroned by Remi at some point) but she could just feel the shadows growing to the side of her.

“I’ll go,” said Cecile, breaking the tension that was thickening into a cake mixture with no milk. Before she should say anything to get her to stay and be a witness she was out the door.

“Maeve, do you really think I haven’t had a conversation with Remi?” John started. He had walked forward until his hips were right in front of her knees. Her eyes trained on his hand. “I have.” Hi hand reached forward, holding a lock by her collarbone, pulling it. Sharp pain pierced into her scalp, her head yanked forward to stare at John’s lower body. “What did you really think?”

“I-” she stuttered. Saliva built up in her mouth. “I thought you argued. Your only conversation with someone being an argument will give you a skewered perceptive of them.”

* * *

Hair was tugged up from her scalp, pulling the pain up.

“Are you questioning me?” he asked, venom dripping from his voice.

“No, no. It was just a suggestion,” she responded, words flying out of her mouth like a waterfall. She raised her hands to above her head.

Pain slashed across her face. Her upper back collided with the table edge behind her, throbbing across the system. Why did it turn into this again?

“Don’t hit me!” she yelled, though only in intensity. She pushed off the table, swinging her legs over the table, and standing up to full. “I’m leaving.”

“No, you’re not.” The words froze her were she stood. “I’m not falling for this trick you’re pulling. You made the claim, you’re not backing out. So, you’re staying with me.”

* * *

Maybe Claire was right.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> 2318 words
> 
> There have been a lot of warnings at the beginning of the chapters recently and I'm thinking of adding symbols to show where it begins and ends. What would you like me to use symbols as? And is there anything else you want me to add to the chapters either as warnings or other details? (I had an idea for that but I forgot.) 
> 
> I'm also going to apologise that the last line won't be addressed for several chapters now, but Maeve and Isen will talk in the next chapter.
> 
> Next week will go back to only Friday uploads.
> 
> Thank you for reading. What did you think of this chapter?


	45. Calling

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Warning: threats of self harm  
> A line shows where it begins and ends.

Water droplets ran down the glass window as the rain hit the wall.

“So, you are going to Wellston,” Ella’s mother stated as she curved her hand to her chin. Ella leaned into her hand, nuzzling into her side as they sat on the bed.

“Don’t jump too far ahead. He said he would decide after interviewing Ella,” her dad responded. He stood a further down the room, away from the two.

“She’ll get in. I have confidence in her,” her mother responded.

She glanced at her feet. What if she didn’t?

“I’m going to my room,” Ella said after a pause. She psuehd herself to standing and without another word, walked through the door connecting the two hotel room and shut the door behind her.

She needed to call Ciana. She needed to alert her to her leaving NBG. Even if she had her doubts about passing the interview, her mother wasn’t an idiot. If she thought there was a high chance of her getting in, then there was a high chance of her getting in.

Taking a seat on the pale blue sheets of the bed, she pulled her phone out of her jean pocket. She clicked the number and called her.

The ringing ran against her ear.

“Ella?” the soft silvery voice of Ciana called down the line. Like petals on a blossom tree. “Where are you? You haven’t been in school for weeks. Was that your sister who they found dead on the News? Do you need me to call the authorities?”

“Oh, I haven’t been paying attention to the news all morning,” Ella responded back with a way too casual tone to the questions asked. “Have they not reported on it yet? I’m found. My…”

Ella went silent with hesitation. That wasn’t right what she was about to say plus was it confidential? It was way too complicated.

“Sorry, I was about to say my brother but that isn’t true. My brother’s friends found me and then I slept at my brother’s place. I’m at a hotel with my parents now.” Be unspecific, she thought.

“Oh, at least your okay,” Ciana trailed off. “Tell me why you were in hiding?” She used the same commanding voice as she had in turf wars.

“I don’t know if it’s confidential or not, so I’m not gonna say anything,” she responded after Ciana was made a few commanding hums.

“Girl, seriously. I watch you trip down many sets of stairs regularly and helped you with your ability, but now you won’t tell me anything,” Ciana growled. Ella shivered. “God, you don’t know what I could do now, but how’s John anyway?”

Ella found herself jumping at the change of tone.

“Err, good. Being a bit too possessive of his new girlfriend.”

“Good, poor girl. I would hate to be in her shoes.”

“It’s Maeve too.”

“That just… Made the situation better and worse.” She chuckled.

“I don’t think they will last long,” Ella replied.

“I agree. They won’t suit each other,” Ciana responded. “Anyway, when are you coming back? I’ve already had Amethyst stand in for you in Turf Wars. And she’s the freakin’ healer!”

“Healing manipulation is different from healing. Though, you should get a new Queen,” Ella answered. Quickly, her smile fell.

* * *

“What do you mean get a new Queen? You are coming back, aren’t you? Do you want me to cut?"

“Do you need me to call Meira?”

“What? No.” Ciana laughed it off. “You don’t need to call her. You just need to stay as Queen.”

“I need to call Meira,”Ella responded, putting more command into her voice.

“No, no, no. You don’t need to. You just need to _stay_ as Queen.”

* * *

“I’m moving schools,” she admitted and took a deep breath in preparation.

“What do you mean? How the fuck can you move schools?” Ella flinched away from the phone. “Which school is it?”

“Wellston.” She smiled smugly.

“You’re not going to be a Royal there.”

“So? Does that really matter?” she questioned. This was going to be a while.

“You can be a royal at NBG. Isn’t that better?” Ciana tried to persuade.

“It is not like I can convince my mom not to,” she tried to argue backi.

“Your mom’s an idiot. Why would she do that? Doesn’t she care about our school?”

“Don’t insult my parents!” she whisper-shouted harshly into the phone. She could not let her parents hear her shout that, especially her mom. “You do not understand why!”

“I don’t want you to leave the school. You’re the reason we’re the 3rd strongest school in the country.”

“You. Are. The. Strongest. In. The. School. You. Are. Stronger than Me. And. Amethyst. Is. The. Same. Level. As. Me. You don’t have to worry about the school’s position in the ranking. And you actually care about the school’s ranking?”

“Fuck you.”

The call hung up. A ding in the end.

“Time to contact Meira,” Ella mumbled to herself.

Venus stood before her superiors.

“Why did you kill an innocent person?” one asked once she came out of her curtsey.

Look straight into his amber eyes, she responded, “How would you know he was innocent.”

“Your job is to run a drug trade to attract vigilantes to kill them. There is no sign that she was at all involved in any vigilante business,” he replied. “In fact, she was a relative of yours.”

“Her father is W. H. Doe might be a low tier but she was a god tier. There was a threat of her becoming a vigilante. She had the ideology to become one.”

“You should have waited until she did become one. People are against vigilantes, so they do not care about their being nor results on their number. An innocent girl being killed by the same person creates panic. It cannot happen again.”

“She is the daughter of W. H. Doe,” Venus argued back.

“W. H. Doe is protected by a god tier. His children will come under that protection when put under the test, though they are high tiers.”

Did her sister really count as a god tier? She cheated to become one.

“Just don’t do it again,” the other one replied before she waved her hand to dismiss her out the room. She left the room.

It wasn’t like she would ever listen to them. The entirety of that family needed to be wiped out to save society ad she was one call away to knowing where the youngest two were.”

Maeve skipped through the corridor. Fuck John, she was about to shee her better boyfriend. The one that didn’t hit or pull at her hair.

She needed to make sure he didn’t hit her again. She couldn’t get out of the relationship yet, but John could continue it with his next girlfriend and John would blame them for it.

How would she do it though? She didn’t even have to stay. She could just leave. She didn’t have to do anything.

She came to the outside of Isen’s room and knocked lightly on the door.

“Come in.”

Maeve twisted the door knob and opened the door, stepping inside. Zeke’s bright green eyes followed her as she entered the room and looked between the two bedrooms on either side of the main area. It was a weirder shape than many other dorms.

“Over here.” Isen poked his head from one side of the door that was closest to her and she walked towards him.

Entering the room, she walked over to the bed and sat on the edge of the bed. Glancing over the room, she noticed that there was some blankets piled near one wall.

Wait, Zeke was Isen’s roommate. Guess Blyke did live in the same dorm as John. It was a wonder how she hadn’t seen him there. She had seen Blyke in her own dorm than John.

“So, how’s your day been?” she asked as she moved her eyes to make eye contact whilst smiling.

“Terrible,” he replied. His eyes were bloodshot.

“Are you okay? What happened?” She jumped up to her feet and rushed dtowards him, cupping his chin in her hand. She placed a hand to his forehead. “Are you unwell? You should take a seat.”

  
“Maeve drop the act.”

She glanced up at him in confusion. She furrowed her eyebrows. “What… act?”

“Don’t pretend like you do not know,” Isen responded, growling over his words. She dropped her hand to her side.

“I don’t know what you are talking about,” she replied, dragging out her words as she spoke to think. “What are you talking about?”

“What was that you did with John?” He crossed his arms over his chest.

Oh, that was the issue.

“It was nothing.” She threw her hands next to her head. “I just made a deal with John and that was what he wanted.”

“Maeve, you can say no,” Isen replied, reaching forward and grabbing her hand. “You can see how I can’t believe what you are saying.”

“I couldn’t have said no.” She threw her hand out of his grip and glared up at him. “I think you can understand that.”

“Why would he be able to consider that you’d do that if you weren’t doing something with him before?” he questioned.

“Maybe we were,” she snarled. She crossed her arms and took a seat on the bed. “Why would it be your business though?”

_John’s light kisses ran down her navel before he moved to lick across her clit, pressing two fingers against her vaginal walls._

She crossed her legs.

“You claimed what happened on Sunday was a date!” His foot hit the ground. “You kissing me cemented that. You could have clarified that you didn’t see us in that light.”

“What light?”

“Is that why you didn’t want to hold hands at break today? You were scared that he would spot you. You did keep looking around for him, didn’t you? Wait no, you were looking around for other students. You were afraid of someone thinking we were dating from that scene only to see that other scene that you had planned later on and talking about it, resulting in the rest of the student body finding out.”

_“Maeve,” John mumbled against her whilst her legs were hooked over his shoulder. She moaned as a shiver ran up her body. “You’re mine, right?”_

She wiped a tear from her eye.

“I didn’t want John to find out about us,” she replied. “Or the rest of the school yet.”

“Then why did you ask me out if you were seeming someone else?” he questioned, frowning.

“I’ll dump him before the end of the school year.”

“Then why are you going out with him?” he asked, gesturing in a circle with his hand.

“What was I supposed to do?” she answered.

“Say no,” he replied.

“I couldn’t have said no!” she shouted. “He would have hit me>”

“How did you get yourself in that position with him?” he asked. He glared at her. What was the issue with it?

“What’s the issue with it?” she questioned in response, clutching the bow at her collar. “I don’t have any feelings for John.”

“You decided to go out with him. What do you want to go out with him for it you don’t share his feelings? How did he think that you were also interested in him?”

“We were hooking up. I-”

“You were hooking up!” he yelled.

“What’s your issue with that?”

“You had sex with someone else.”

“What is wrong with having sex with someone else?” she questioned.

“You were cheating on me,” he replied, glaring at her.

“I was hooking up with John before I asked you out!”

“Then why ask me out? You already had the perfect god tier boyfriend. You didn’t need to ask me out. I’m just your side boyfriend. I don’t want to be there.”

She glared up at him. Why couldn’t he understand?

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> A/N: 1996 words.
> 
> Less words than normal, but this chapter truly couldn't go on any longer.
> 
> I haven't had a lot of time this week, so I couldn't add points to show where the trigger warnings end and begin. Along the same path, I might have to stop doing regular uploads at one point. I don't know whether I would go onto uploading when I finish a chapter or if I go on a hiatus till Christmas. I don't want to go on a hiatus as that was how I lost interest in Narcissist (though I was losing interest before that).
> 
> I was also planning on posting a bonus chapter on my birthday, but I ran out of time to post, so there might be an extra chapter to this at another time (a separate fic for ao3). I ran out of time due to how busy I was that has been previously mentioned.
> 
> I hope you liked this chapter. Thank you for reading. What do you think of this chapter. 


	46. Talking

Isen stared at John and Maeve. What the fuck was happening? Why were they kissing? Wasn’t that _his_ girlfriend?

Well, they were not official. She had made sure of that because… Because she was making out with John now.

John…

Why was his life like this? She never liked him. It was a joke. It was a joke to her. She never took him seriously. She was just playing with him.

He placed his head in his hands.

“Are you okay?” Blyke asked, placing a hand on his back.

“We went on a date yesterday,” he whispered back without glancing up at Blyke or even Remi.

His heart skipped a beat. He remembered that he used to have a crush on Remi and considered Blyke competition. That had been silly – stupid of him. He had a drawn an inaccurate picture of Remi and him whilst interviewing… **he who must not be named.** That was embarrassing. Super embarrassing. He hoped she never found out about that. That went for Maeve as well.

And now **you know who** had stolen his girlfriend. Except _John_ hadn’t stolen her. She had never been his. She had kissed his cheek. They were dating. Which fitted two attractive god tiers?

“Oh,” he heard Remi mumbled. The silence at the one table was overwhelming combined with the constant wildfire chatter.

“What are they doing though?” Blyke asked. Isen glanced between his fingers to where Maeve and John had just broken away from _that_ kiss. Then John grabbed her wrist, dragging her out the room.

“Why is he treating her like that? Why would Maeve chose to be with him?” Remi questioned to herself, furrowing her eyebrows.

“Was Seraphina glaring at them?” Blyke asked straight after.

“She’s been acting weird lately,” Remi answered.

“Yeah. Though, I haven’t seen her much,” Blyke replied.

“I think she likes John,” Remi responded before she shrugged. “I’m not sure though. They haven’t talked much recently. What is Maeve doing though?”

“Maybe she and _John_ are dating,” Blyke suggested.

Come on, they had already been over this. Maeve had been dating him, hadn’t she? That was what she had said.

Remi glared at Blyke.

“Sorry, Isen,” Remi said to him. “She probably cheated.”

Isen couldn’t bring himself to reply.

Maeve had asked to meet him that evening. He had suggested this room, not knowing how good of an idea that would be later. He could get an explanation out of her being scared of someone over hearing. It was perfect in the worst way.

Maeve entered the main dorm room with the brightest smile as he looked from a gap between his bedroom door and the door frame of his own room. Why was she smiling so much? Who could smile so much when they were going to talk to their boyfriend for the first time after he had watched her cheat on him in public? Was John that good of a kisser? Better than him?

Though, Maeve didn’t seem to be able to spot which room he was in.

“Over here,” he called out, opening the door further so that she could see him.

Maeve’s smile brightened as her eyes spotted him. With a hop in her step, she walked over to where Isen had held the door further open for her and took a seat on his bed.

He wanted to roll his eyes. He had held the door open for her and the first thing she did was take a seat on his bed instead of thanking him.

“So, how has your day been?” Maeve asked after a pause, moving her eyes to look up at him.

“Terrible,” he replied. Her smile fell. Was the truth of the situation finally hitting her?

Maeve bounced to her feet. “Are you okay?” What happened?” She cupped his face in her hand as her eyes scanned his face for a sign of an answer. She reached her hand up to touch his forehead. “Are you unwell? You should take a seat.”

Apparently, she was an oblivious bitch. Or a bitch who was good at acting. He knew that for a girl attending an academic school, Maeve liked the arts. Why didn’t he see it before?

“Maeve, drop the act,” he commanded. Though, he wasn’t certain he would count it as a command. He wasn’t about to command a god tier.

Her violet eyes glanced up at him with furrowed eyebrows. “What… act?”

Maybe he was a tad early to assume it was an act. She could just be an oblivious idiot. Or she could still be trying that _act_.

“Don’t pretend like you don’t know,” he decided to respond, growling over his words to add threat. Her hands dropped to her sides.

“I don’t know what you are talking about,” she replied. “What are you talking about?”

What the hell was she doing? Was she that oblivious or still trying?

Maybe he had to point it out directly to get her to talk.

“What was that you do with John?”

He crossed his arms over his chest.

“Oh that was the issue.” She began smiling up at him again as she threw her hands up to be level with her ears. “It was nothing. I just made a deal with John and that was what he wanted.”

“Maeve, you can say no,” he replied. Why hadn’t she said ‘no’? They must have already been dating by that point, or at least she liked him. “You can see how I can’t believe what you are saying.”

“I couldn’t have said no.” She threw her hand out of his grip and glanced up at him. Why was she doing this? “I think you can understand that?”

No, he could not understand that.

“Why wouldn’t he be able to consider that you’d do that if you weren’t doing something with him before?”

“Maybe we were,” she snarled back. Why would she be so defensive if it wasn’t true? Crossing her arms over her chest, she took a seat on his bed. His bed again. “Why would it be your business though?”

_Because you asked me out before this happened. We are still supposed to be going out. This would be cheating. He deserved to know the truth._

She crossed her legs. Was she being aroused by thoughts of John? Did she think of him like that?

“You claimed what happened on Sunday was a date!” He stomped his foot with a thud. Fuck, his emotions were running out of control. “You kissing me cemented that. You could have clarified that you didn’t see us in that light.”

“What light?”

Oh, come on. Was she still doing that oblivious act? She had to get it.

“Is that why you didn’t want to hold his hands at break today? You were scared that he would spot you. You did keep looking around him, didn’t you? Wait, no. You were looking around for other students. You were afraid of someone thinking we were dating from that scene only to see that other scene, that you had planned, later and talking about it, resulting in the rest of the student body finding out.”

A tear was wiped from her eye. Why was she the one crying? She wasn’t the one who found her partner cheating after they assured her that she meant something to them.

“I don’t want John to find out about us,” she replied. Yeah, she should. He wouldn’t be surprised if John went out to beat both of them up, but it would be Maeve’s fault. She set both of them up. “Or the rest of the school yet.”

“Then why did you asks me out if you were seeing someone else?” he questioned, furrowing his eyebrows in anger. Why didn’t she admit it?

“I’ll dump him before the end of the school year.”

Was she promising that? Why would she do that? She went out with John because she cared for him, right? What stopped her from doing the same to Isen?

“Then why are you going out with?” He gestured with a hand in a wide circle in frustration.

“What was I supposed to do?” she answered him.

“Say no,” he responded. Back in circle.

“I couldn’t have said no!” she shouted. Oh, so now your angry. Over the same thing they’ve already covered. He couldn’t blame her for that. “He would have hit me!”

Fuck, what the hell was she doing near John then?

“How did you get yourself in that position with him?” he asked, , glaring at her.

“What’s the issue with it?” She clutched at part of her bow at her collar. “I don’t have any feelings for John.”

So, what did that mean for him? Was she lying?

“You decided to go out with him. What do you want to go out with him for if you don’t share his feelings? How did he think that you were act so interesting in him?”

“We were hooking up. I-”

“You were hooking up!” he found himself yelling. So he was the only virgin out of the two of them. He was the only one sexually inexperienced with others and his girlfriend had a high sex drive. How was he supposed to keep up with that?

“What’s your issue with that?”

“You had sex with someone else>”

“What’s your issue with that?”

“You had sex with someone else.”

“What’s wrong with having sex with someone else?”

“You were cheating on him.” With John. He bet he had sex with someone before Maeve.

“I was hooking up with John before I asked you out.”

Oh, seriously. He was truly the side boyfriend.

“Then why ask me out? You already had the perfect god tier boyfriend. You didn’t need to ask me out. I’m just your side boyfriend. I don’t want to be him>”

She glared up ta him. Was he finally getting through to her?

“Tier doesn’t matter to me,” she replied, pushing back a strand of hair that had fallen forward. “Level doesn’t matter. It doesn’t change someone’s personality. You know that.”

She held her hand in front of her chest.

“It matters in life. Why wouldn’t you base who you date off of it? A god tier cannot date a low tier, that’s just how the world works. Why wouldn’t you chose the move powerful guy to date?”

“John’s parents are a god tier and a cripple,” Maeve responded.

Oh, John again. “But are they still together?”

“No.” She hesitantly pressed her fingers together. “But it wasn’t their choice to separate.”

“It doesn’t work,” he replied.

“Stop being a pessimist!” she growled. “Levels don’t matter in relationships.”

“Cheating wasn’t inconsequential,” he replied. She didn’t argue.

“I care about you,” she said, after a moment. She reached a hand up to him before she dropped her hand to her side again. “I don’t care about John. I’ll dump him before the end of the school year. I promise you that. Just please stay with me.”

“I don’t want to stay with you.”

In a flash, she had grabbed his hand and pulled him down. He turned I the air, so when he crashed into the bed’s duvet, he landed on his back.

With a blink, Maeve was on top of him. Her legs were on either side of his hips as she sat on his groin.

“Maeve, get off of me,” he ordered. He tried to shake her off, bt she moved to lean on top of him, pinning his arms to down with her own hands. Then he noticed the glowing violet.

“Come on, stay with me,” she cried, shaking on top of him. “I won’t stay with John. Just stay.”

A tear fell onto his neck.

“No, I don’t want to,” he replied. How could he calm her down enough to let him go? Did he have to calm her down to get her down? “I’m not going to date a cheater.”

“It wasn’t like that,” she responded back. Her eyes flashed off.

He shoved her to the bed, causing a huff of air out of her mouth before he pushed himself up to sitting.

“Leave,” he stated, pointing towards the door. What if she reacted badly to him saying that? What if she beat him off?

“Let me stay.” She pushed herself up to sitting where she leaned back onto her elbows. She moved her legs slightly apart.

Don’t look at her, he though. Don’t look at her skirt. That’s what she wants. She’ll get the wrong idea.

“You can do whatever you want to me.”

“Leave,” he ordered, turning away from her.

“But-”

“Just go,” he cut her off.

“Fine,” she huffed. Her steps stopped across the floor echoed in his ears. Why did she have to act so hurt by it?

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> 2134 words.
> 
> I'm planning to adding the details to where exactly the warnings apply tonight, though it may only end up on wattpad for the time being. I don't believe there is any warnings for this chapter but I may have just forgotten something (if I did please say something).
> 
> I made lines of this chapter to justify some of the things Isen said in the last chapter so it was more clear that it was Maeve in the wrong. To make it clear, Maeve doesn't understand what she did wrong and for why, refer to previous chapters where she talks about her mom.
> 
> What do you think of this chapter?
> 
> Thank you for reading. Stay safe. 


	47. Lemon

Tears streaked down Maeve’s face as she walked along the hallways of the boys dormitory, arms hugging her body.

What had she done wrong? Seeing multiple people at once wasn’t bad, right? Or was that what whore meant? Sleeping with multiple guys. She didn’t get what was wrong with that.

What was Isen so mad about? She had kissed John, so what? She knew jealously existed but wasn’t that when you wanted something you didn’t have? Isen had her; he had nothing to be jealous about.

She clenched her fist to her side.

John did act jealous of other guys around her, but she considered that more paranoia. Paranoia that Maeve would leave, or that she was plotting against him with other people. She couldn’t blame him for that – it had literally happened to him.

But john got out of hand though. There was no reason to hit her She hadn’t done anything yet. It just pushed her further away from him. It made her wanted to leave now, but she couldn’t.

“Maeve.” She turned around, her lilac hair circling around her head as she spun, to spot John walking up to her. Speak of the devil. “Are you okay? You’re crying.”

He wiped a tear off her cheek with his thumb.

“No,” she replied, glancing at the floor as he took a step closer to her. “People are mad at me.”

“You don’t have to talk to them,” he whispered in her ear. He wrapped his arms around her, pushing her head into his shoulder. She buried her head into the nook of his shoulder before she let out a sob. “I know something that will cheer you up.”

He squeezed her hand and she glanced up at him.

John smiled sweetly and she reached up to wrap her arms around his neck. His arm swung around to beneath her mid thigh and his other wrapped around her upper back.

Entering John’s dorm, Maeve buried her head into his chest. This was so comfortable. Why did she ever doubt John?2

It felt so warm and his breath kept brushing against her ear.

John placed her onto the soft material of his sofa, stroking her hair.

He placed a kiss to the top of her head. Her heart fluttered. “I’ll get you something.”

Her eyes followed him as he walked back to a cupboard in his kitchen that attached to this living room. He reached up and grabbed something from behind the cupboard door.

“Here,” he called before a packet landed into her lap.

She pinched the top of the oacket brought it to eye level. ‘Milkwae Stars’. Weren’t those the ones with different focus on the star? She loved milk chocolate.

“How are those?” John asked, leaning on the counter top.

Maeve opened the small packet and placed a smooth chocolate star in her mouth, allowing the sweet chocolate to melt against her tongue to savour the flavour on her tongue.

“No response then. I don’t know if that is good or bad,” John continued, smiling at her. Her heart melted like the chocolate. The attention was divine.

She placed another star in her mouth. Fuck, she loved chocolate. It was the best. The milk chocolate laid on her, slowly melting from the heat of her tongue, before she broke it into two pieces under her tooth. John knew what he was doing.

The sofa pushed down as John sat down at her feet.

“Your still wearing your school uniform,” he commented, looking over her body.

“Yes, so?” she responded.

John’s fingers pinched the edge of the fabric of her skirt, picking it up, and he glanced beneath it after.

She slammed her legs shut.

“Wait until after I finished the chocolate,” she responded. She drew her legs closer to her chest.

“Can I have a star then?” he asked, looking at her with cute large eyes.

“I thought the stars were for me,” Maeve replied.

“Okay then,” he said. He ducked down and his hands clapsed onto her legs. Pushing her legs apart, his hot breath hit between her thighs.

She bit her lip to stop a moan. “I thought I said to wait until I finished eating…”

“Do you want to give me one of those stars then?” he offered before he dragged his finger over her panties.

“No,” she replied before hesitating. “Yes. No. Continue and take a star.”

“Wow, you changed your mind quickly.” His finger slipper under the thin material, stroking her clit. “Do you like sex that much?”

A shiver ran up her spine.

“More,” she begged, pressuring building up. Then she placed another chocolate star into her mouth.

“I’m worried about you choking,” he commented. His hand ran along her hip.

“Then pay attention to me,” she replied with a smirk.

“Why are you always like this?” he answered before he took a chocolate star out of the dark blue packet.

“Do more,” she ordered.

“Oh, so you’re in charge now,” he replied, huffing as he moved her skirt to lie on her stomach. “Its not like I can have you naked and begging for me in minutes.”

She rolled her eyes. “Try your best.”

“Really, Maeve?” He licked across the thin layer. “I think you’d look pretty naked lying on my sofa, moaning and begging my name as I fucked you into the sofa.”

“The school owns the sofa. We’ll stain, so we should go to your bed. We’ll be able to change the sheets there.”

“No, I like you here,” he whispered against her.

“Seriously?” she exclaimed, shock vibrating in her voice as she suppressed another moan.

“What? Are you concerned someone will walk on us?” he questioned. His finger pressed against the fabric.

“No, I’m concerned about owing money to the school. Plus, the condoms are in your rooms.”

“We don’t have to use condoms,” he suggested, pressing against the material above her clit. Her teeth bit down on her lip as his mouth went to lick against where he had located her clit beneath the fabric before, pushing the fabric down only to attempt to lick it with the material in-between.

“You are so not getting me pregnant.” She moved her head up to look at his head that had looked up to make eye contact with her. His gold eyes were smirking as a shiver ran down her spine.

“You can use the tablet birth control,” he suggested with a smile. A finger moved against her.

“I don’t have the pill nor the emergency pill,” she replied, sighing annoyed. This wasn’t going far.

“Oh, you’re boring.” He lifted himself up and crawled over her so his head was above her chest. “I didn’t want any restriction with you.”

“Shut!” she replied before giggling. “You didn’t even consider STDs.”

“I was a virgin before I had sex with you and you were the same so unless you had sex with someone, we don’t have to worry.” He cupped her face in her hand.

“that’s very simplified. Did you get tested?” she questioned, her longs longing to wrap around him.

“You didn’t get testing either,” he responded, reaching forward to the navy packet in her hands. He took a star out and placed it in his mouth.

“Just do it.” She gave in after a few minutes of him staring a her and the dampness growing against her crotch.

“Really?” John’s finger ran down the buttons of her shirt. Then he went back up and picked open each button gently until her top was open and lying by her sides.

The ribbon that had formed the bow at her collar laid on the coffee table next to the sofa.

John pulled at the edges of the buttons as she lifted her body up. The sleeves were pulled over her arms until only the white shirt needed to be thrwn across the room. That’s exactly what John did.

His eyes devoured her as the gold scanned over her body. Goosebumps rose up against her skin.

Fingers traced around the flesh as it rose up to her tits. Then he ducked his fingers beneath the material of her beige bra and traced over the tip of her breast. It went hard beneath his gingers, ridges forming out of the originally soft flesh.

“I want to get rid of the bra.”

“Then do that. You normally have by this point.”

His fingers traced up to the bra strap and over her shoulder to go towards the clasp of her bra. He unclasped it and chucked it onto the coffee table.

“You know, most people have changed out of their school uniform by this point in the evening.”

“Yeah, well I haven’t.”

She wrapped er legs around John’s hips (finally), pulling her pelvis up to him. John giggled at her and placed a kiss to her collarbone.

Kisses moved between her two collarbones before they trailed down the centre of her breasts. Then the kisses moved onto one breast as her eyes fluttered closed and his tongue ran over the small nipple. It encircled the nipple before John moved away.

His hand traced over her other breast, running his fingers over her nipple, until his fingers ran along her almost flat stomach.

More shivers ran down her spine as she kept moaning beneath. Her hips grinded against his, craving more friction. Craving more.

His fingers slipped underneath the waist band of her skirt before he removed them again, tracing along to the hem line of the skirt. He slipped his hand under her navy skirt.

He ran his finger along the fabric of her panties, focusing on the area where her vagina was beneath her underwear.

Tingles ran down her spine. Her panties were clinging to skin with damp.

“You’re already wet for me,” John whispered against her ear.

“What did you expect?” she replied, smiling up at him.

“Nothing less,” he answered, pressing a kiss to her cheek before he moved back to playing with her more.

He pushed her panties to the side, slipping a finger against the edge of her vagina.

“Can you touch my clit?” she asked, pushing herself up to sitting. The finger moved inside her, moaning as the feeling exploded her senses.

“Seriously, you’d think I wouldn’t after you ask every time,” he responded, smiling as slipped another digit in. “Now, lie back down.”

“No, we should move to your bed.”

“Why?” he questioned, looking down to her with wide gold eyes.

“One, that’s where the condoms are. Two, we’re going to stain the sofa. I don’t want to clean it,” she replied, removing her legs from around his hips. Slipping out from under his weight, she swung her legs off the sofa and took to a stand on weak legs.

“Oh god.” She sighed, glancing down at her skirt. “You could have told me. My skirt was in the way of my sight.”

“Its natural, Maeve.”

“That doesn’t make it not stain.”

“Well, you’re not walking there,” he replied, standing up next to her. An arm went against her upper back as the other arm went beneath her knees, swinging her up against his chest.

Once in his room, he laid her onto his bed with the dark sheets and immediately she sat up. She grabbed the hem of his shirt, pulling him forward so he was standing next to the bed. She pulled up his shirt and he helped her lift it up over his head by moving his arms to fit through the sleeves.

“Wanted me topless, did you?”

“You’ve removed everything but my skirt and you were still fully clothed,” she replied bitterly.

“You are still wearing your panties,” he replied with a smirk, leaning forward to her.

“They’re not covering anything,” she snapped back, moving an arm to cover her breasts as a heat rush raced to her cheeks.

“And that’s hot,” he replied, still with that irritating smirk.

She rolled her eyes before grabbing his hand. He fell forward onto the bed when she tugged his arm.

“Maeve,” he whined under her gaze.

She shuffled over to where John laid on his back. She sat near his pelvis with a leg on either side of his hips and laid forward.

Her hand traced down the ridges of his six pack.

“I thought you were the one wanting to be touched,” he stated smiling up at her.

“Then touch me,” she commanded.

He grabbed her wrist, pinning it to the bed by turning her so her back was against the duvet. One hand reached down to below her skirt, rubbing against her clit as it enlarged further. Then the hand moved to rub around the rim of her vagina.

A finger then moved in and then he pushed another digit next to it, stretching out the walls. Moans ran out of her mouth as he rubbed against her walls. hIs huffing hit against her ears.

It stopped. Emptiness. She glanced up at him. The belt clicked open and he pulled it out of its grip. He pulled down his trousers until he was only in his boxers with a large bulge at the front.

She pushed herself up ont other knees and hit his lip with her own.

More. She wanted more.

“You’re eager,” he whispered against her lips as her body clung onto his for support. She pushed down the boxers with one hand as her hips pushed forward until one of his hands moved from her back to help her.

Once it was off, he pushed her down onto the bed, pulling off her last two articles of clothing.

“I’m going to…” She nodded as her heart raced in her chest, pounding for relief.

The top of his cock pushed in and she gasped. Even if it happened before. He placed a kiss against her collarbone as he slowly pushed the rest in and her legs wrapped around his hips again Then he pulled out before thrusting in again to both of their moans.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> 2334 words.
> 
> This is the second sex scene I wrote out to full and the first one had some kinks in, so it might have come off weird at points and there's probably some wrong anatomy.
> 
> Also, I think with this published chapter the series has reached 100,000 words. I don't think this series is even halfway through the plot, though I'm not certain.
> 
> Thank you for reading.


	48. The Safehouse Idea

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Warning: Physical abuse
> 
> line indicates where it starts and ends. 

John stared as Maeve laid across his bed, heaving in deep breaths with half-closed eyes. Her chest rose up before sinking with each breath.

He placed a kiss to her cheek as she half slept.

She looked so peaceful sleeping.

“John, I am awake,” she whispered back, barely moving her mouth or the rest of her body.

“You’re so pretty,” he whispered back, breath hitting her cheek.

Sweat trickled down her body.

“I know that John,” she replied, lifting her upper body up to look at him.

“You can continue to lie down. You don’t have to get up,” John replied, stroking along her slightly wavy lilac hair that fell down to just below her shoulder. “I can get water for you.”

“I’m not lying back down,” she answered, shuffling back to lean her back against the head rest whilst sitting on his pillows. “Though, go get me water.” She waved her head in dismal.

He walked off with a smile on his face and brought a glass of water to Maeve when he came back after half a minute. Before he gave her the glass, he tapped his lap and Maeve shuffled over to sit in his lap, drinking the cool water.

“How’s your day been?” he asked, stroking along her hair.

“Not the best,” she responded, leaning into him.

“What happened?” he questioned, pushing a few strands of hair out of her face.

“I hate people,” she replied, half-whispering it into his neck.

“Yeah. The entire school are idiots,” he comforted, almost smirking.

“Does that include Seraphina?”

* * *

He yanked her hair, forcing her head back. She gasped.

“Stop it!” she screamed, reaching up with one hand to attack his hand. The water swished around in the glass that she barely gripped on to, yet to keep up right. Her fingernails scratched against his wrist, searing pain in fleeting moments. “Le me go! Pulling my hair will do nothing.”

“Will it, though?” he whispered against the back of her ear.

“You’re a…”

A hand clamped over her mouth.

“You will never want to finish that sentence!”

She started to whimper for help that couldn’t hear her. John pressed kisses against the back of her, continuing to yank her hair and cover her mouth.

She sreamed.

“Oh, shut up, Maeve!” he shouted, pushing her against the duvet. The glass barely landed upright on the bed cabinet to prevent from shattering. “You’re being too whiny.”

“I’m not being whiny!” she responded, kicking uselessly against his legs. “I don’t like my hair being pulled.”

* * *

  
“Grow up then.” He let go of her and moved his body to sit next to her.

“No, I didn’t need to grow up. You do,” she retorted.

“Why? You’re the one whining about me hurting you. Its how life works, Maeve,” he answered, stroking along her lilac hair on her scalp.

“You’re not supposed to hit me. You’re not supposed to yank my hair,” she replied, sitting up to scowl at him.

“Why not?” he questioned, tilting his head at her. “Others hit me!”

“But they’re not your friends,” she replied, curling up with her knees to her chest. “Friendships, relationships, are between equals. You don’t hit your equal.”

“People do though?” he questioned, reaching out for her hand.

“They shouldn’t.” He clasped her hand to his chest. “You don’t have to copy peoples’ actions just because they do it – to you or not.”

“Some people consent to it,” he replied, grunting.

“That’s their issue.”

“So? You’re trying to help the bullying situation. That isn’t your place.”

“I took on the responsibility of helping the students when I became Queen,” she replied. “Why would I fail those I promised to help by taking up the position?”

“They don’t deserve your attention,” he responded, wrapping an arm over her shoulders.

“And you do?” she asked, looking up at him.

“Yes, you should only spend time with me.”

She looked up at him incredulous. “What the fuck John?”

“Why did you just swear at me?” He pulled her closer, squeezing her wrist hand with searing pain.

“Why would you think that?” she cried, trying to push against his grip. “That isn’t healthy. You should make other friends.”

“But they’re not trustworthy,” he argued.

“I’m still not sure you actually had a conversation with Remi,” she responded, crossing her arms over her chest.

“Are you sure you want to get into this argument again?” he questioned, fiddling with a few strands of her ahri.

“if you pull my hair again, I will scratch your face out,” she replied, raising a finger up to his nose.

“Oooh,” he cooed. “Going to activate you ability against he.”

“I’m leaving,” she replied, swinging her legs over to the edge of the bed. Standing up, she scanned the room only to see her panties and skirt. “Did we leave my clothes in the other room?”

“Yes,” he replied.

As she reached for the skirt on the floor, a camera click went off.

“John don’t take photos of me,” she cried out, glaring at him as she picked her clothes up off her floor.

“Why? Are you camera shy?” He smirked.

“No, I’m naked!” she yelled back.

“I’ve you naked before. You’re naked now in front of me. Why does it matter?” he questioned, only half-serious.

“You can share those photos,” she responded, clasping a fist to her side.

“And it matters?”

“Yes, it does,” she replied before she walked out the room.

“Oh, come on. Maeve, you’re not going to say goodbye to me, you’re boyfriend,” he called out whilst she collected her bra off the coffee table in the next room.

She heard John’s footsteps on the floor of his bedroom. She had to go soon, so he wouldn’t catch her. Though, she probably wouldn’t be in danger right at this moment.

“Hi.” She glanced up to see Byke standing there, blood red in the face. His face was darker than his hair. When had the door opened? She hadn’t heard it open.

“Close the door!” she barked. The door slammed shut and Blyke ran to his room.

Quickly, she pulled on her underwear and skirt before clipping on her bra and white shirt. She held her blazer and bow in her hand, questioning whether to put it on or not. If she did, she was in the room longer, but if she didn’t, her clothes were ruffled enough to look like she just had sex.

She walked back to her dorm and entered the room. Remi glanced up at her before she went back to cooking at the stove.

Quickly, she grabbed a dress out of her wardrobe and pulled it on once she had her other clothes off.

Slipping her feet into dark grey slippers, she walked out to the kitchen.

“How’s your day been?” she asked, walking up to her. “Do you need my help with anything?”

“I’m almost done,” she replied. The vegetables and rice fizzled in the frying pan. “Can you get the plates out?

She nodded and opened the cupboard grabbing the top two plates. She placed them on the counter next to the hob.

She served up the food into the two dishes and Maeve placed the cutlery on the table.

Sitting down to eat, Remi’s eyes drilled into her. This was about Isen again, wasn’t it?

“Why did you cheat on Isen?” Remi asked before she took a mouthful of her food. _She knew it._

“I don’t get why people keep on saying I ‘cheated’ on him!” she yelled, dropping her fork out of her hand. It clattered against the wood.

“Because that is what you did,” she replied.

“Why? I didn’t use him for better grades, did I?” she questioned, crossing her arms over her chest defensively. “I just went on a date with him. A date that both us wanted to go on.”

A salty tear ran down her cheek.

“And you went on a date with John,” Remi responded.

“I didn’t go on a date with him. We had sex,” she replied.

“So…” Remi hesitated, tongue between her teeth. “You had sex with someone you weren’t dating. Whilst you were dating someone else.”

That sounds bad.” Heat rushed to her cheeks. “He also asked me out so we were dating.”

“It only sounds ‘bad’!” Remi exclaimed. Why was everyone angry at her? “And what do you mean you are dating? You said you weren’t thirty seconds ago.”

“We haven’t gone on a date. I am not serious about it,” she replied, twiddling a strands of hair around her finger.

“Then why did you say yes to the relationship? You are leading John and Isen on. They are taking the relationship seriously. You’re not,” she explained, corssing her arms over her chest again.

“I was taking mine and Isen’s relationship seriously.” Tears ran down her cheeks.

“Was!” Remi gasped. “He ended it!”

£If you’re so upset about it, then why did you do it?” she questioned. There was no sympathy.

“I couldn’t just say no to him,” she cried into her arm. “There was no way. He already thinked I liked him and I didn’t want to poke the bee hive. I was already too close.”

“Why couldn’t you say no? You haven’t given him a reason.” Remi paused. “Did you not consent to it.”

“I did,” she replied hesitantly. “I liked it.”

“So, you did say yes. Is that why you couldn’t say no?” she asked, taking a mouthful to think over.

“It was only to the sex.” She sighed. “I went to bargain with him on Saturday, so that he would show his ability at school. He agreed to it only if I agreed to be his girlfriend and to go public with it . He came up with what you saw in the lunch hall.”

“You didn’t tell him that you didn’t see him that way,” she replied, her voice slowly becoming quieter before hitting a light bulb. “Did you see him that way?”

“Not really, I just thought it would be a summer fling. It seemed easier than whatever else he would do,” she replied, twiddling with a strand of lilac hair that had fallen forward into her face. “Plus, I doubted John would have accepted another answer. I still doubt he would have. The same would go if I broke up with him right now.”

“Then was it appropriate to ask Isen out?”

“Well, his was the relationship I preferred,” she replied. She had to resist from pulling her knees up to her chest. She was supposed to be eating.

“Yet, you didn’t consider how Isen would feel about you seeing John. Did you even care about how he felt?” he questioned.

“I didn’t realise many people cared about you the partners dating someone else at the same time” Her eyes locked onto her risotto.

“I knew John wouldn’t like it, but he has trust issues. He’s had someone betray him in the past and it would look suspicious tom.”

“Why didn’t you think others would like it?”

“Well…” She paused. Wy had she thought Isen would be okay with that? She based it off her mom, but her mom was a horrible role model. She knew that. Even her mom’s exes disliked her when finding out about her seeing multiple people at once. She was an idiot.

…But she did it for different reasons. She had a fake relationship on the surface and a real relationship underneath. Like how noble families would od in the past and probably the present.

“I should have told Isen before.” Yes, his reaction was out of shock. If he knew about it, he wouldn’t have broken up with her. That’s what her mom should have done. And she had the opportunity to.

“That’s a start,” Remi replied, her red eyes searching her.

Could she fix it? It wasn’t too late, was it? It was only this evening, so she could text him after dinner to talk.

“I have an idea for a club. Maeve glanced up from her risotto, nodding as hse had a mouthful of rice in her mouth. “It’s called the Safehouse. Its to protect the students!”

“There are spies or criminals among the student body!” she exclaimed, hitting her head on the back of her chair.

“What – No.” Remi furrowed her eyebrows. “Is that the meaning of safehouse?”

“Yes. It’s to protect spies or criminals,” she explained. “Anyway, continue.”

“Yeah, well violence in the school has increased in the school recently, so I thought a club where violence and the use of abilities are banned. It would enable students to form friendships among the different tiers.”

“I don’t think the violence in the school has increased, but I wasn’t here before. It’s a good idea. I hope for it to go well.”

Maeve: Hey

Maeve: I’m sorry

Maeve: Do u want to go out tomorrow

Isen: Leave me alone.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> 2151 words.
> 
> Sorry if I missed something out of the warning. It's difficult to be specific with some of the scenes.
> 
> How are you finding the trigger warnings? 
> 
> I'm finding that, to me, that it interrupts the flow of the chapter, but for some it's necessary. 
> 
> If I'm going to stop doing it for any of the platforms, would it be ao3? I always find that readers are more prepared to read worst stuff on there (my own experience). Should I keep it?
> 
> What did you think of this chapter?
> 
> Thank you for reading.


	49. Rivals

Remi glanced down the hallway of her dorm. Did Maeve not fully understand what cheat was? It was what made the most sense with that reaction.

Remi: Hey

Remi: I talked to Maeve

Blyke: What did she say?

Isen: I should be the one asking that.

Remi: She doesn’t fully understand the concept of cheating. She didn’t go out of her way to hurt you.

Isen: Out of her way? That was obvious.

Isen: You said she didn’t understand it.

Isen: What do you mean by that?

Remi: As I said, she barely understand what I meant by cheating.

Remi: It took a little while but she somewhat understood why someone might be hurt by her actions.

Isen: Somewhat? Seriously.

Isen: It wasn’t just the cheating. It was that it was John. I might not going near anyone associated with him, let alone his girlfriend and have our relationship be romantic.

Blyke: I shouldn’t be a part of this conversation, should I?

Isen: Nope.

Remi: She thought she should have told you before. It was a start but she had a long way to go.

Isen: I mean I would have still neded the relationship but… it would have been less of a shock.

Remi: I assumed that.

She placed her phone on her desk. Maeve was oblivious. She had realised recently that she herself was quite niave. Arlo may have been an asshole, but she really didn’t see what he had done to her brother’s design. To all the hard work he had put in.

She believed him when he told her it was necessary to dismantle it and put the hierarchy in its place (the dangerous exact opposite of what her brother had attempted to do) because it had immediately fell apart as soon as the new school year started without Rei there as king and controlling everything. Even if it had (she believed him for that part as it was turning out everyone loved the hierarchy and loved causing harm to others), he wanted it to fail. He could have tried something else that was anti-hierachy as well.

However, clearly Rei’s system didn’t benefit everyone. Pulling one group down to prop up another would only be met wit unrest. As the hierarchy benefitted one group whilst putting down one group directly by their own hands, both should feel happier without it for it to work.

The safehouse should fit that requirement. It would be happy place where new friendships no matter what tier, which would lead to more understanding.

It might not handle the issue with the country, but if one spreads the message, more people will know about it. They’ll teach it to their people, especially their children, so when the time comes to rise up enough people will come out in support to make a change.

Though, she wanted it now.

Who could stand watching people live in poverty based on the mere fact of genetics? It wasn’t even about the family or area you grew up in (which was still horrible), it was genetics.

How can one person fix that so quickly? She wasn’t even the group affected.

Though, being the group benefitted meant more people would take her seriously.

Did her friends care about the issues? Obviously, Arlo didn’t. Elaine probably didn’t. She thought every word that Arlo ever said was the law, which had to be because of the hierarchy, so she definitely believed in it. She wasn’t showing nay sign of remorse, unlike Arlo.

Blyke did seem to care. Maybe he didn’t always care (why did she put the maybe) but he understood the issue now. All three of them didn’t truly understand the issue until they worked on the X-Rei project for those nights. She had more understanding, but now she knew for definite that Blyke had gone vigilanting by himself. He must care to some degree. And they were together now, so he could learn more.

Isen was another story. John was somewhat right about Isen being a coward. He didn’t want to stand up for himself when those stronger than him asked for him to do things for them, putting threats to make sure that he did do those tasks. He believed in the hierarchy and even if his opinions had changed, they hadn’t changed much.

Maeve was probably in a similar position to Isen. (They had dated but she didn’t know if that was relevant.) She did grow up in New Bostin, a low tier city. Her mom was a mid tier. She knew the issues that low tiers feud. She didn’t overly care about it, but she doubted. Maeve cared about many societal issues. So, she guessed Maeve could be worked on.

John did share the same beliefs as her just not the same methods. He was more… of a violent person. She wasn’t certain if he had ever truly thought about how to end the hierarchy, but maybe the Joker incident was an attempt. A very bad, failed attempt. In reality, John was probably not in the right mental state to do anything right now.

Seraphina definitely didn’t agree with the hierarchy. Maybe she did in the past but not now. Not after being considered a cripple for a month. Oh, the student body must regret that now. She should make sure that Seraphina didn’t get as angry as John.

Wait, did John get angry because of how people treated him as a cripple? Well, actually, she kenw that already. John told her. She meant something else.

She meant… What did she mean?

So the hierarchy worked that if you climbed the ranks, you were on the top, right? But was that true for all?

How would someone like Arlo react if a cripple rose to be one of the top in the school in a matter of a few years? Would it matter to them? If a cripple became stronger than someone else, were they still a cripple to them? They shouldn’t be, but could they?

She would have to ask Ella. John was a late bloomer – she basically read that from his school records (why did Isen include that) – so that could be a reason for John’s behaviour. Ella had a similar attitude to John, which didn’t appear to be from either of their parents, she assumed she was also a late bloomer.

Remi wanted to be a vigilante again. Ember was getting out of control and no one else was doing anything. She had to avenge Rei. No one else was going to do it for her. Blyke might help her. If he didn’t want to, she could get him to help her. Arlo nor Elaine or Cecile would help. Isen didn’t want to involved anymore. She had no way to persuade him, unlike Blyke. Maeve would be the same, but for different reasons.

Seraphina was recovering, so she wouldn’t ask her yet.

Ella and John would be mostly easy to persuade to become superheroes, especially Ella. Ella witnessed what Volcan did to her sister. She would want revenge for that…

She should sleep on this.

The white ceiling stared back at her.

Oh, so now Maeve and John were going to be open about their relationship. Didn’t she have a crush on Isen? Wasn’t going out with jOhn going to harm ant chance she had with Isen?

She hated Maeve.

How was she going to do anything as Queen? She had no goal in mind for her life; why would she have one for the school?

She would do so much better. She would love to dismantle the hierarchy to stop fights and helps her friends out. Why would Maeve do any of that? She was a spoilt brat who got everything from her looks, not even counting her god tier ability.

Well, apparently she had good looks too. She just didn’t care about what other people thought about her.

She hated the whispers, so she tuned them out.

She wanted her friend back. Her best friend. A tear ran down her cheek as she pulled her knees up to her chest. She had stolen him from her.

But Arlo did that too. He did it worst. He destroyed everything they ahd built together to get her and later John.

She shivered. She didn’t want to think about what he had been planning to do to either of them.

John wouldn’t let her talk to her. She didn’t let him to talk to her. Why couldn’t she?

She took a deep breath between sobs that rattled her body.

He was too obsessed with his new girlfriend. A self-absorbed little bitch who was so slutty she was probably sleeping with several guys in the year.

Okay, that was exaggerated. She just had a limitless amount of attention from guys and only chose John because he had a six pack.

He was hot too. The hottest guy in the school.

Was Maeve the hottest girl in the school?

… It was personal tastes, wasn’t it?

She shouldn’t even focus on them, should she? It was their life, so she was going to ignore them like she had been doing so far. She would focus on her own life, her own grades.

She took a deep breath.

Calm. Calm. Calm down. Others thoughts didn’t matter.

“Seraphina,” Elaine called out from beyond the door. She let go of her knees and placed her feet onto the rug next to her bed. Walking up to the door, she opened it to see Elaine standing beyond.

“Do you want any orange juice?” she asked. She kept glancing hurriedly around.

“Yes,” she hesitantly replied. “Who’s there?”

Elaine mouthed something.

Really? Really?

“Oh, it’s just me, Maeve,” a voice called from the common area of the dorm. Maeve’s voice. Fuck.

“Err,” she stuttered. “Why are you here?”

“Oh.” Was her talk all the same? Footsteps rang against the floor and Maeve came into view. “I wanted to talk to you.”

Why? Was this about John? Why couldn’t she just shut up!

Elaine’s bright green eyes flickered between them.

“I’ll go make orange juice,” Elaine responded, walking off to the common area. She almost sprinted down the hall.

“What did you want to talk to me about?” Seraphina asked. She crossed her arms over her chest.

“You’re a low tier, right?” She fiddled with a strand of her that was half in her face.

Seraphina’s heart skipped a beat.

“No!” she shouted, her fist crashing into the door she leant on. Maeve flinched, her violet eyes widening in shock as she a step to the side away.

She never knew any different, did she?

“Oh.” A hot blush hit the lilac haired girl’s cheeks as sweat trickled down her forehead. “I’m sorry. I thought you were as most of your friends were low tiers and I’ve never seen many people make friends with others of a massively different level.”

Maeve clasped her hands in front of her.

“Well, get used to that being different here>” She glowered at her.

“Oh, its just I haven’t seen it be that different here. Guess things are changing>” Maeve fiddled with a strand of hair. “That’s good. I came ot talk to you about my plan for limiting bullying.”

“Oh…” Guess she was going to actually do something as Queen. It really didn’t suit her. “Why me?”

“Well.” She readjusted to fiddle with her fingers. “Part of the issues that low tiers don’t stand up for themselves. As you have friends with low and high tiers –” oh god, she was that unsure of her ability level – “I thought you could help bridge the gap between low and high tiers and encourage confidence in low tiers.”

“I’ve already started doing that.” She checked out her black fingernails.

“That’s good.”

“What about mid tiers?” she questioned.

“Fuck mid tiers.” Maeve nervously laughed. She half meant it, half joked. Mid tiers were typically the worse of all the tiers.

“Not all of them are that bad,” she responded. She took the stance because it was the opposite to Maeve’s.

Terrence was technically a mid tier, so she guessed she was defending her friend. Though, it wasn’t like Terrence had done a lot for. Or anything at all. He had a tendency to run away.

“I imagine so.” She paused mid thought.

Why did she have to change her mind? Now she looked stupid for taking it whilst thinking it was the opposite to what Maeve thought.

“What is your level?” she asked. Great, what was she supposed to say.

Then it hit her.

Seraphina smirked. Oh, wouldn’t you like to know sweety? Worried your position is in danger?

“That’s for me to know and you to find out.”

Maeve furrowed her eyebrows. Confused. She would figure it out soon enough. She would probably have a few broken bones by then, maybe in hospital.

But her reaction gave away that she didn’t know a thing. That was just how she wanted it.

She wouldn’t know how many bones she could have broken in a second.

“Oh, and I’m not sorry for calling you a slut by the way.” She shrugged. “Its true. Why would I regret something that’s true?”

Maeve’s face turned bright red, tears forming at the corner of her eyes, and she bit down on her lip. Come on, respond.

“I’m going,” she said, turning around and opening the door before she could say another word. She vanished to the hallway.

“Are you not staying for the orange juice?” Elaine called to Maeve out of Sera’s view. Was she trying to apologise for the Arlo situation? Seriously, Arlo had come to their dorm to pick her up the other day.

“No, I’m tired.”

And Maeve went.

Well, that was a boring reaction. She must have been tired. There were no tears this time.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> 2308 words.
> 
> This chapter may also be called 'Rivals except one doesn't know it and probably would rather not be rivals. And that person is Maeve'. 
> 
> This chapter turned out to be much more than it was originally written to be. I really like how it turned out and I hope you liked it too.
> 
> What do you think of this chapter?
> 
> Thank you for reading.


	50. Wake Up

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Warning: Discussion of previous molestation. 
> 
> Over entire chapter.

Pain thudded in Mary’s skull. Pain, pain, pain.

Where was the ice pack? She must have crashed into a lamp post again?

But this bad, she must be in hospital.

_The morgue,_ she thought. _She was dead._

Her memories of recent events were coming back to her now.

Rei was here.

She was dead.

Ella was in danger. John was in danger.

Her afterlife was in danger from a giant wolf of impossibility that had acid blood and was hunting her and her fellow survivors and who she was fighting seconds before.

Was it seconds? Her body was stiff like it had been hours. Could getting hit on the head cause that? Crashing into the ground?

“Mary,” Rei whispered. Rei! Rei was here?

He was in danger then.

In a sudden jolt of energy, she sat up and wrapped her arms around a masculine body next to her.

“Did that hurt?” a female voice asked her.

Pain sprouted from her chest. She gasped. Eyes flashed open and she slumped back to lying on the bed.

Goose bumps roose up on her skin.

She wrapped her arms around her chest in a flash.

“Why did no one tell me I was topless?”

Her eyes flicked between the rose haired girl with teal eyes and Rei. Rei had seen her topless. Heat flushed in her face. Who was the rose haired girl?

“Because you were unconscious a minute ago,” the girl said. Her hair came down to her hips, over one shoulder to shimmer down like a wave. “You didn’t give us an opportunity to say it to you.”

“Who are you?” she questioned, wrinkling her nose at her.

“Misci. Mistress Emerald,” the girl replied. Good enough. That was the name of a dead vigilante.

Turning her attention away, she glanced down at her bare chest. Pale skin, naked to nay sight if not for her hands and arms, and had purple splotches all over.

Purple splotches all over…

Those were bruises. Fucking bruises. On her chest. Like finger marks.

“Why does my chest have bruises on?” she exclaimed, shuffling back until her back was against the headboard.

She glanced between the two other people in the room. Rei and misci.

Rei wouldn’t do it. She knew Rei, but she didn’t know Misci. She could be gay or bi or something and hence have an internet in girls.

“We think it was Braylon,” Misci replied, a dark pink decorating her cheeks. Ashamed. Why?

“Who was Braylon allowed near me?” she questioned. Rei wouldn’t allow that would he?

Wait…

Braylon had come to them just before her void of darkness. He attracted the wolf’s attention. She attacked the wolf to make sure that Blue didn’t get hurt because of him. Nor would she get hurt.

Braylon set her up. But she wouldn’t…

“Blue,” Rei stated. She wouldn’t though.

“Why would Blue allow that? She hated him after the first attempt,” she responded back, staring at Rei’s gorgeous gold eyes.

A tad bit distracted.

“Your ability,” Rei answered.

“The wolf,” she mumbled, staring at the toes on her feet. She had used her ability to save them and they returned the favour with this. With this.

“I fucking saved them!” she exclaimed, clasping the edge of the duvet with white knuckles. Tension tightened around the arrow.

“Apparently you fell unconscious pretty quickly,” Rei replied. She did. A few moves made then she was down for the count.

“I made the first move,” she whispered. It was true. With everything, would they have done anything?

“You don’t have to look at them then,” the girl – Misci – responded, handing a pure white towel to her. “The group will hold them to justice. Though, you probably want to activate your ability to heal any internal injuries.”  
  


Power surged through her body as her eyes glowed gold.

Every injury healed up in a scene of a glowing white star.

“It got rid of the bruises,” Misci mumbled.

“It is my word against theirs now, isn’t it?” he asked, though she didn’t need an answer to know.

“Yes.” Misci sighed, taking a seat next to her on the bed. “And it will be difficult to convince some.”

“Why?” Mary asked again whilst knowing the answer again.

“Blue is reputable,” Misci said at the same time as Mary thought it. “Lillian, as she is known, we see as having a good heart. I thought she did. Turns out she isn’t as morally right as we all thought.”

Only Rei had a good heart.

“Braylon even isn’t known to be a liar or a criminal. He cared about everyone no matter what,” Misci continued. “Its believable that he would do that due to his previous actions, but he has Blue as his ally and the ‘Volcan’ reporting against you. There’s no evidence for one and loose evidence for the other. There’s little evidence to judge and people will pick a side.”

“Okay.” It wasn’t like she couldn’t figure it out herself. “What are we doing about clothes? Where did my top go?”

“Daisy’s getting new clothes.” Misci pointed a thumb to Rei. “He threw your bra somewhere in probably this room.

Heat rushed to her cheeks. She could imagine him doing that in a completely different situation with a much more positive air to it.

There was a damp spot forming on her underwear. Too much.

“Your face is red.” Rei placed the back of his hand against her forehead. “You’re burning up.”

“I’m fine, Rei,” she replied meekly. She had zero volume control apparently. It wasn’t convincing.

“You might have an infection. I’ll check if I can see something,” he stated. He pushed her shoulders, so her body turned to face Misci with her back to Rei. She sighed. “Stop acting like that. I’m trying to help you.”

Mary rolled her eyes as Rei’s fingers searched through her hair to see for any redness or other signs of infection.

Misci smirked at her. She had figured it out, hadn’t she?

“There’s nothing I can see,” Rei said, stroking along her hair. She leant her back against his chest, soaking up the warmth of his body. “Guess I made a mistake.”  
  


“You were blushing again, weren’t you?” he whispered into her ear. Her face couldn’t burn any brighter.

Misci giggled before she swung her legs off the bed and stood up next to the gold bed. She walked across the room and picked something up off the floor, flinging it towards her.

It hit her in the face .She picked her bra up by the strap and pulled it out to a foot away from her face to look at it. It did not appear to be damaged.

She looked over her shoulder and Rei glanced away. She removed the towel from around her chest and clipped on her bra over her chest again. Then she moved to elan back against the headboard.

“You’re not trying to cover up?” Rei questioned, like he hadn’t seen her like before.

“You walked in on me in my underwear,” she replied.

“It was an accident,” Rei cried in his defence.

“What?” Misci half shouted, half exclaimed.

“It was four years ago,” Rei responded, exasperated.

“Why am I in the middle of this conversation?”

“Because Mary decided to bring it up,” Rei replied, crossing his arms over his chest.

Mary glared back, causing Rei to start laughing. She sighed.

The door clicked open.

Fear trickled down Mary’s back.

A girl with dark blue hair and silver eyes of moonlight poked her head around the door before taking more steps into the room to stand in the centre of the room past the point of the bed.

“What are you doing?” Blue crossed her arms, wrinkling her nose in disgust, as she tapped her foot against the floor in a rush. “Why are you having fun?”

“Go away, Lillian. You’re not wanted here,” Misci responded, talking her seat back next to Mary. She laid across the bed, arm looped over one knee, in her air of confidence.

“Oh, so you’re chummy with your killer now,” Blue replied, placing her hands on her hips.

Mary stared at her toes. Oh God, this was the end.

“You’ve got the wrong person, Blue,” Rei answered, taking a seat next to her on the edge of the bed. Both of them where in defensive position, she realised, to protect her. Her heart thumped.

“How do I have the wrong person?” Blue cried in response. She didn’t know. She didn’t know how to prove it to her. She didn’t know how to prove it to anyone. “It’s so fucking obvious. Her story is weird and generally wrong, and she has fucking Volcan’s ability. She’s Volcan! You should be disgusted to be near her!”

Like you would know what is wrong with the story of my life. Dead life.

“You should be disgusted by that rapist you stand by!” Misci yelled, jumping up to standing.

Blue froze.

Mary stared at her. Did she feel guilt?

“What rapist?” Blue asked, perfectly calm. Took a while for that, didn’t it? “All I see is the serial killer, hierachist, drug dealer you are standing by.”

“Did you not watch it?” Misci yelled, throwing her hand and waved it around. “How were you going to explain that?”

“Look,” Blue began to whisper in a threat, “if Braylon did anything, I’m sure the whore deserved it.”

“Since when was ‘whore’ interchangeable with ‘killer’,” Rei replied, a lot less quite, cold, emotionless than Misci. Cold anger. “Sounds like you do not believe what you are saying.”

“Oh, shut up!” Blue yelled. “You’re the one protecting our killer.”

“Oh, is she awake?” a male voice called from outside the room in what must have been a hallway. Footsteps thudded against a soft material – a carpet – and came to the door.

“Don’t come in!” she cried, moving her arm to cover her chest on instinct. Of course, it didn’t work.

White lilac hair streaked with movement as the guy rushed into the room. Equinox.

“Oh, err.” His face went blood red. “I should have listened to you.”

“You should have,” she responded, threateningly.

Equinox placed a hand over his eyes and then continued, “I had no idea what was happening in here, but we were supposed to bring you to questioning as soon as you were awake.”

“Without a t-shirt?” she questioned. Equinox gulped.

“I don’t think what you were wearing was considered,” he replied. How was she supposed to handle this? If she acted one or a few ways, she would be more suspicious, but she had no idea what made her suspicious.

“Well, Rei can just give her his shirt as they’re so close and you guys like to walk around without your shirts on half the time,” Blue dismissed, waving her hand.

Heat rushed to her cheeks as thoughts of a topless Rei filled her head.

“That was one time right after I had showered at that hostel we stayed at that one time,” Rei mumbled to himself.

“No,” Misci responded, folding her arms over her chest in defiance. “Daisy has already gone out to get me and Mary new clothes and I’m not going to let her efforts be a waste of time.”

“Fine,” Blue grumbled. She hadn’t not this Daisy yet. What was she like?

“Yes, I’ll tell the rest that,” Equinox squeaked, rushing to get out the room to see appropriately again. His elbow hit the door frame on the way out, causing him to yelp out in pain.

Once he was supposedly out of view fom behind the door where Blue stood, she sighed, taking a few very slow steps towards the eminent door. Then she glanced at Mary to glare. There was no way that she would convince Blue she wasn’t Volcan. Blue left.

Turning to Rei, she asked, “Questioning?”

“The Volcan thing.” Rei scratched the back of his neck. “They had to ask you to give all the evidence instead of two witness statements before they decided whether to kick you out or not.”

Her heart skipped a beat. “They could do that?”

Rei stared at where his feet must touch the floor. “Yes, they can.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> 2035 words.
> 
> I forgot to mention last week that this chapter and the next one will be Rei and Mary chapters. Though, these chapters come every ten chapters.
> 
> I do believe the warning does apply to the majority of the chapter and if it doesn't, it is mentioned multiple times. 
> 
> Thank you for reading. What do you think of this chapter?


	51. Questioning

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Warning: discussion of previous molestation.

Misci stared at Mary.

The way Rei and Mary interacted almost made her think they were dating, at least before Rei died, but there were a few moments where it was more obvious that Mary had a crush on Rei (that she knew about) and Rei probably returned the feelings (whether he knew it or not).

She hoped the best for them. It was upsetting people like either of them were dead.

She didn’t want to believe that Mary was Volcan or either consider it. Mary acted so much like a teenager. Volcan acted like an adult disciplining a child.

There was also the height. Mary may be taller than her (who was 5ft 5) but she wasn’t that much taller. She doubted she could become 6ft with heels, especially heels that Volcan could run and fight in and kill.

Maybe she just thought Mary wasn’t serious enough of a person to put on that persona. She didn’t think that Volcan could put on a persona similar to Mary.

“They will ask about your ability,” Rei replied before she could. “They will question your backstory.”

Rei glared at the wall as Mary’s eyes drilled into him. He didn’t have another word to say.

“Did you tell the truth?” Misci questioned. Mary glared at her.

“If you’re asking about why I said I was killed by Volcan, the reason could be true,” she started, shrugging. “My dad is W. H. Doe, William Doe. The author of unOrdinary.

“He wrote it for my brother. He was a late bloomer and he got expelled for it. Then sent to rehab with the people in charge who don’t know how to rehab. The book got banned, like everything else involving my brother.

“He did write a book dedicated to my sister and I too, but they didn’t get banned, so there was less controversy.

“And my dad is a cripple, like said by many and known by many, as much as my mom is a god tier.

“I could have been killed for being my mother’s daughter as much as the fact that my dad wrote the banned book that started the recent vigilante trend.

“See, it sounds like my aunt is Volcan.”

Misci stared at her. What? Her aunt? Is that why there are so many similarities between Mary and Volcan? But Volcan was sooo tall.

“It was my aunt who killed me. She confronted me and my sister in an alleyway as we were walking through a low tier district as my mom owned a place nearby. I brought time for my younger sister to run away and she ended up killing me within that time. I don’t know if my sister escaped or not, but _I guess_ she would be here if she did get killed. Doesn’t mean she didn’t get caught.”

“Why would your aunt kill you? For your mom?” Misci questioned.

“It’s a complicated situation.” She pushed some hair behind her ear. “I don’t know the full story, but my mom and my aunt have a rivalry. A very one sided rivalry. If she is Volcan, then killing me in cold blood isn’t that shocking, no matter for what reason.”

Misci nodded. It wasn’t like she could think of much to say in response. Who could?

It was more unfortunate for her death. Misci had died helping people. Mary was killed for no reason when she was doing usual day to day things.

Soon, the door clicked open to break the slowly building tension in the silence and it revealed Daisy, standing there with two t-shirts hung over her arm.

Misci slid off the bed, her feet landing on the soft rug next to her shoes, and walked over to Daisy, her toes brushing through the strands of the rugs. Craving for warmth.

Daisy smiled. A fake smile. It didn’t reach her eyes, especially when she glanced at Mary. Was she scared of her?

Scared of Mary?

“I’ll bring you down once you have the new clothes on,” Daisy said, pushing the shirts into Misci’s chests.

She grabbed them before they hit the floor.

Daisy disappeared.

Behind the door of the void.

“Mary, would you like the medium or the medium?” she joked, smirking at the blonde.

“Err, the rouge one.”

She sighed. That was the one she liked _too_.

She threw Mary the shirt that she caught in mid air. Almost immediately, she pulled it over her chest, so the golden words ‘Living my Best Life’ shone in the light.

Ha. _Life_.

Misci, herself, walked over to the bathroom and shut the door as light streamed through the bathroom window. Rei may have seen Mary in her underwear before (and it was probably without any bottoms) for whatever reason, but she had her dignity to preserve.

Soon, she slipped out with a plain grey t-shirt on instead of her previously ripped t-shirt.

Rei had helped Mary off the bed, but he was currently supporting her to help her stand. She guessed Mary was having difficulty balancing.

She went to open the door and by the time she glanced back to them, Rei had picked up Mary to carry her. Mayr had her arms wrapped around Rie’s neck and Rei had both his arms support her lower body against him.

The height difference had got to much. Or they were flirting again. That could be possible.

When they get downstairs, she pulled out a chair for Mary at one of the tables in the hotel that was closer to the group.

All eyes were on them.

“So, you’re back,” Braylon stated, glaring at Mary from where he stood near the centre of the group with his arms crossed. “You don’t look well.”

She placed her head in her hand. It pounded. She hadn’t noticed it before but it seemed like her head was going to give her issues every time she stood up. Hopefully, it wasn’t for long.

“My head still hurts,” she replied. Like they cared.

She stared at her hand as it laid on the oak table.

Her head felt like it was going to explode.

“Oh, poor you.” Sarcasm dripped out of Braylon’s voice.

“Is she fit for the interrogation?” questioned a female voice. She glanced up, pinpointing the voice to one girl. Ellie.

“Has to be,” a guy replied. Fuck him.

She took in a deep breath, expecting a question any second now. One second. Two second. Three second.

Then it came.

“Can you explain your ability?” the female voice from before, Ellie again, asked. Who was she ? It would really help to know.

“My ability is ‘fire claws’,” she answered. She was going to be as honest as she could be. Her heart thumped like thunder. “What else would you like to know?”

“What does it look like?” the same woman asked. They must have agreed on one person for the questioning.

“Showing you would be the best description?” she offered, moving her eyes up from the smooth golden brown table made of glossy oak wood. The tablecloth must have been removed at some point in this grey world. “As they say, a picture paints a thousand words.”

“Then do it.”

She brought her hand up from her lap and a switch of a flick of her mind. Power surged in her blood and she controlled it to the fine point of her hands. The ombre claws burst from her knuckles with a few sparks dancing around the three.

If their memory was any good (in the general person’s case), they should have already spotted a difference. Her aunt’s claws were a deformation of her fingers into something harder when her ability activated. She had to hold her fingers straight.

However, Mary’s was more like Wolverine’s. They came from her knuckles – not a change of the formation of her fingers.

Her heart raced.

“It doesn’t look the same,” one person stated. No shit, Sherlock.

That was what she aimed for though…

She glanced up to Braylon. The final straw. He rolled his eyes.

She shouldn’t have to care what he thought. She shouldn’t care.

“How long was it since you met Volcan?” Blue questioned.

“Are you saying I forgot? How could I forget how my killer’s ability looked like? Are you serious?”

Blood sprinted through her veins. Heat rushed to her face.

No. No. NO.

“Just ask the next question,” some pipped up from somewhere within the crowd of the group in the dining hall.

“Is your father W. H. Doe?”

“Yes.” Did they have lie detector or something?

She did not think any of them had a lie detector ability.

“Ooo, what’s his full name?” a different voice called out, yelling to her.

“William Doe.”

She resisted the will to face palm. Wasn’t this her integration? Were they seriously fangirling over unOrdinary?

“Just continue with the questions?”

“Oh, shut up!” someone else yelled.

“Why is he a cripple and you are a god tier? That makes no sense.”

And they’ve lost the specific integrated. Now time to get asked random questions.

“My mom’s a god tier. I’m no where near her ability level, so it isn’t that shocking.”

“What’s your mother’s ability?”

They hadn’t discussed the questions before hand, had they? Though, no one specific was asking them (already noted) so maybe this was the beginning of the spiral into chaos.

“Aura manipulation.”

“How do you have fire claws then? You’re dad’s a cripple, right?”

Oh, keep on asking that.

“My aunt has the ability fire claws. It _is_ in the family.”

“And does your aunt have any relation to Volcan?”

She took in a deep breath. The time was nigh. She had to say it, not matter what they thought. “My aunt was the person who killed me.”

The room dropped into silence. You could hear a needle drop.

Someone gasped.

Maybe she should have mentioned this sooner.

“Oh, so why didn’t you say so?” Blue asked. Back to the lily.

Her cold, silver eyes pierced into her. Her heart sunk. She hated her.

“I was confused,” she explained. “I never had a good relationship with her, but suddenly I met her in the street one evening and then I was dead. I kept being told that Volcan must have killed me, so I just didn’t say that I actually knew the person.”

“How are you here if your aunt is the one who killed you?”

“I thought you would have guessed by now.” She paused, expecting someone to speak up but no one did.

“It sounds like she was Volcan.”

A pause before someone spoke up. “You are willing to accuse her of that?”

“Why wouldn’t I? She killed me,” she responded.

“But she would go against your father.”

“She killed me!” she shouted back. How hard was that to understand?

“Yet she would target a group of people that your father supported.”

“One, that was your interpretation of the book. Though, that was the message. Two, she isn’t my dad’s sister. Not sure why it sounds like you got that. She’s on my mother’s side. The high tier side.”

“So, err…

“Is this why you were confused when we asked you about your vigilante name?”

“Yes.” She stared at her hands.

“So, you’re claiming that you have fire claws but you’re not Volcan because your aunt is and she killed you?” Blue questioned. She really hated her now, didn’t she? Just the way she worded that. It wasn’t that hard to understand, was it?

There was no turning back.

“It makes more sense than you’re suggesting, Lillian,” one of the girls responded. Thank you, whoever you are.

The room fell into silence. It was the final moment before the bell would hit to decide her fate over truth and lies. She had no idea where the path would leave.

“Before we do the voting, there’s an elephant in the room that none of you know about,” Misci stated, going to stand up to full from where she had been leaning onto the back of a chair. Previously, her elbows had supported her by resting on the top of the chair.

She didn’t want to admit it but this was necessary.

“Braylon molested Mary when she was unconscious.”

Braylon sighed. Almost immediately. Way too quickly.

“Misci,” he whined, “You shouldn’t accuse people of serious crimes without evidence.”

He laughed.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> A/N: 2059 words.
> 
> I did plan to come off hiatus after editing through the chapters, which would be the earliest the first Friday of November, but I decided to come off hiatus earlier than expected as I thought it would be better to be off hiatus whilst uruchans on hiatus. I was also mostly on hiatus as I was away in a location where there was limited wifi (I came back home tonight and only earlier because they moved the time you had to leave to earlier due to coronavirus). Then I decided that I should go through all the chapters to pick up the errors that have been pointed out recently.
> 
> This is the moment when I remember I haven't checked through this chapter. I've read it all through now and picked up a few errors. Hopefully it was all of them, but I did it quickly as I did want to post the chapter soon.
> 
> For why there are so many errors, a few years ago I was diagnosed with dyslexia. I'm also austistic, so I mostly work visually so (according to my parents) it works differently to most dyslexia. I do read a lot, so it doesn't make reading difficult. I probably read slower than most, but I often find myself scan reading to make it easier (unless its Eragon). (If you've ever read or do read 'Woman in Black' and you find the page that is all one paragraph, that was hell.) This scan reading often carries over to my editing, so much so I often just don't read over once I have typed up the work. I do write up the first draft in a notebook, so its not like its the first draft.
> 
> Also, due to the dyslexia, I use a laptop/computer in exams, so I was taught to be able to touch type fast for it to be faster than my handwriting. Often it takes up several hours to type up a chapter, so as I try to shorten the time, I make errors such as '>"' where I hit the shift key too early. With pronouns, a similar thing happens but instead I hit another key too early. As I forgot to check over, these errors aren't spotted.
> 
> Anyway, I hope you have enjoyed this chapter. I still plan to go on hiatus, but it will likely be January or February.
> 
> Thank you for reading. Please share your thoughts in the comments.
> 
> Happy Halloween.


	52. Blizzard

The mattress was sinking sand.

Even though the ringing screeched through the room, to bounce of every wall into the chamber of entirety, she couldn’t move a single inch.

A fog rolled over her mind, nothing sharp to pierce through with the light of what day it was. She did not want to move; the sheets were too warm. So, warm. Who would ever want to move out of the armchair next to the fireplace and into the blizzard?

Her scalp ached. A dull throb from all the pulling. Why would she ever want to see him again?

Plus, Cecile sneering at her.

Seraphina hated her. She rolled over, stuffing her face into the pillow of white feathers. She had no idea why she hated her.

Though, she got her level wrong. Seraphina seemed most likely to be offended that she didn’t recognise the work she put into her ability than anything.

That had to mean she was an elite to high tier.

But she couldn’t be stronger than her because she was the second strongest in the school and John was the strongest. Why would Seraphina not be a royal when she clearly wanted to be one so much?

She was an elite tier.

She could still be a low tier.

“Maeve!” Remi’s voice pierced through the snow. “Your alarm has been going off for the past five minutes. I can’t bear to here another minute of it!”

She grunted. Not moving.

A small hand rested on the back of one of the shoulders.

“Are you feeling okay?” Remi asked, slamming the alarm clocked onto snooze. “You don’t even bother to snooze your alarm clock, which you’ve chosen the most annoying noise for.”

Totally didn’t chose the most annoying noise for an alarm clock as possible and still didn’t get up.

She pushed herself up to sitting, staring blankly into her bright red eyes. Why was it only Tuesday?

There is an anchor tied around the ankle of her foot. Then the anchor was chucked into the deep blue sea, tugging her foot as it sunk deeper and deeper into the never ending infinity – the depth that never ended. It was embedded into the seabed of sand, caught beneath a rock amongst the sand.

It continued to tug on her foot. Her body was pulled until her foot was over the edge of the wooden rowboat, dipping into the ocean, as the boat pulled away. No one cared.

A hand grasped her arm before other hands touched her body. Then leaving. The original pushed her overboard. The person she trusted.

The water closed in around her.

Salt stung her eyes.

Her arms thrashed about as she attempted to swim up as the metal chain clunked, attempting to pull her down and down into the never ending depths.

The water trapped her.

There were others with her. Dark shapes that moved around, waiting to prey at any moment.

She glanced to where the silver light of the moon pierced through the dark blue water of the tides. It slowly dwindled out until it vanished on her body.

A spotlight to the demise.

And the boat was no longer there. There was no rescue ever happening.

A shiver ran up her body.

She had to get out. She had to get. Her legs kicked up towards the reflection of the moon as her arms circled. The chain tugged. It was more caught. Wrapped around, caught in a joint. And it was pulling her deeper.

The energy drained as she tried to continue to swim up to the surface. She hadn’t prepared her last breath. The heat was creeping out.

Energy steadily drained out. She found herself pulling her knees to her chest to curl in a ball in the mid water.

She was alone as the ice creeped over.

“Are you feeling well?” Remi asked again, snapping her out of it. Remi’s hand semi reached out towards her. Hesitant in the last moment.

“Yeah,” she answered, swinging her legs over the side of her bed. The warm rug rubbed against her bare feet. “It was just a tough day yesterday.”

“Do you want to talk about it?” she offered. She sat down next to her on the unmade bed.

“NO!” she shouted, jumping to the side. She pushed Remi away from her. Away.

Bright red eyes stared up at her as she crashed to the floor. A well of fear. A well of fear at her.

She leapt to her feet.

No. No. NO.

“Sorry, sorry, sorry.” She rushed through her words. She placed her hand against Remi’s upper back and the other against one of her hips. She activated her ability but there was nothing to heal.

“Are you okay?” she asked as she offered Remi a hand to help her to stand. Remi took it hesitantly. “Sorry.”

“It’s okay,” Remi replied, brushing her skirt down. “I shouldn’t have sat that close to you.”

Maeve gulped. Everything was going wrong.

Remi said goodbye and quickly left to her own room. In a rush like she could not wait to leave. Like she could not have left quick enough.

She was pushing everyone away.

After changing into her school uniform, she stared in the mirror. Her lilac hair flowed down to her lower back in their airy waves.

She hated it. Hated it, hated it, hated it. It was the beginning of everything wrong.

With a switch of her aura, cyan painted over her lilac hair from her root down. Then the airy waves that curled from the length of her hair flattened as it shortened to her upper back.

Cyan would work because it wasn’t lilac, nor is it magenta or orange. Or pastel pink.

Or light green.

Not like anyone else. No one else to be compared too.

She wanted her violet eyes to change too.

Ella stared at the clothes that her mother had laid on her bed in the second hotel room.

A light pink blouse that had an almost straight neckline from shoulder to shoulder with the sleeves bellowing out to her wrist with a tight band at the wrist with a button at each of the sleeves. There was another button at the back of her neck.

A black skirt was laid out next to it with a sliver zipper and a belt with a silver ring.

Then a pair of opaque black tights were folded next to the skirt. A pair of shiny black flats were at the foot of the bed.

They were terrible. Terrible to a degree that she couldn’t describe the pit of hatred as she flinched at the day ahead over and over in the never ending cycle.

“Ella, we’re leaving in 10!” her mother yelled out.

She hated the clothes.

They were not the worst of the worst though. Not according to her mom. Mary would agree with her mom.

She changed and found herself staring in the mirror of the hotel room. It didn’t look good, she had to admit. She guessed it was good for the interview.

Stepping out of the door between the two hotel rooms, she wanted to immediately turn back.

From what she could tell, her parents had argued. Her mom thought they were still exclusive after her parents had forced them to break up. Her father hadn’t and had seen other people, though no one right now.

That had turned out terribly.

She wished her mother had waited until she moved out of this hotel.

But she continued to walk to her mother as the interview was soon.

They headed out and soon turned up to the school building of Wellston.

She was taken from reception up to the Headmaster’s office. She took a step inside the room, staring up at the turquoise haired man inside.

She stood by the door as the man walked around the desk and up to her, offering a hand out to shake.

“Hello, you must be Ella Milla,” he greeted.

“Doe,” she stuttered. “Ella Doe.”

Her heart thumped.

“Ahh, Milla’s you mother’s surname,” the man stated, still offering the hand out to her. She was supposed to meet the headmaster for an interview. This must be the headteacher.

She accepted his handshake.

“I’m the headmaster here at Wellston, Vaughn,” she nodded nervously as he gestured towards the chair in front of his desk. She took the seat.

“So, Ella, why do you want to attend Wellston?”

Definitely not because one of her closest friends, who is more of a colleague than a friend, threatened her with self-harm when she disobeyed her orders.

“I wanted a fresh start,” she stated as she wrapped her fingers around the arm of the chair. “I moved to NBG before John came here… I don’t really want to return there after all of what’s happened.

“Why here then?” he questioned, resting his chin on top of his two hands that were supported by his elbows on the desk.

“John’s already here and I don’t really want to be apart from my family after everything.

“I’m also interested in improving my academics and being in an environment that will be more competitive.”

“What was your old school?”

“NBG. New Bostin Girls.”

“What rank were you there?”

“Rank 2. I was the Queen since the beginning of my second year.”

“Your level is 5.5, right? You realise that means you cannot be Queen here at the current moment. We have had Queens and Kings weaker than you before, but that isn’t the current arrangement. At most, you can be Jack currently,” he explained as he fiddled with a pen from a pot in the desk.”

“I’m not looking to be a royal. It isn’t that important to me. It isn’t overly important in general. It looks good on a CV but I’ve already been Queen. I want to focus on grades for now,” she responded, smiling gently although it likely didn’t reach her eyes.

“What is your opinion on the hierarchy?”

She looked in his eyes then glanced away.

Why that question?

Do they normally ask that question? They’re either supper for or super against?

Her heart thumped. Would the authorities find out?

“We won’t say anything to the authorities,” he continued after she didn’t respond. She must look like a deer in the headlights.

Were they mind readers?

Her mother wouldn’t choose a school that was massively pro-hierarchy for her. She wouldn’t choose a pro-hierarchy school for John. The hierarchy didn’t work well for later bloomers (not like she was going to tell anyone that she was a later bloomer). Plus, John wouldn’t.

Actually, John would.

“I…” Don’t stutter. Don’t stutter. “I don’t like it. It’s just to push over people above others for who they were born as. When things change, they don’t keep to it.”

“Would you care to explain what they don’t keep to?”

Glancing at the wall, she paused before speaking.

“The hierarchy encourages bullying ad bullying encourage the bully to become big in their own opinion. When their victim is no longer the victim, they refused to recognise it. If a low tier stayed a low tier for longer than the normal, everyone pretends they are still a low tier even if they are now stronger than the person.”  
  


“That definitely is an issue, isn’t it?” Vaughn clasped his hands, his chin resting on top of them.

“Yes, it is,” she replied, smiling. “It wouldn’t be an issue if people stuck to their morals – no matter the state of those morals – but they don’t . The hierarchy puts people down to raise others for underserving reasons.

“It isn’t even like the hierarchy without those details would be good. It allows abuse without anyone to go against the abuser because it supports the abuse.”

She glanced away from making eye contact with Vaughn to look at the bare cream wall.

Heat rushed to her face.

“What do you think of the roles of Royals?” he asked, not even bringing up the previous question.

“It’s a good idea to have feedback from students, but the way royals are decided don’t represent the roles they play. The fight is accurate for Turf Wars as it is for the strongest students to compete from each school, but why should they also represent the students’ opinions? That would work better through voting.”

“That’s a good point, Ella,” Vaughn answered. “You clearly have been through a lot. Have you been questioned by the authorities yet?”

“No,” she replied, trying to avoid the attempt to scoff. “I don’t think they particularly care about the murders of Embers.”

“It is something to consider what the authorities are doing.”

She glanced up to his bright green eyes. “Yes.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> 2121 words.
> 
> Edit: The original statement has been deleted as I believe it is no longer relevant as it referred to past 'drama' (it was more serious than drama) that I don't think needs to be brought up anymore. It happened several months ago and the person is no offline or completely under a different persona.


	53. Trapped

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Warning: physical abuse involving relationships.
> 
> It starts when a paragraph starts with three bold words. However, the physical abuse is mentioned before that point and is a theme throughout the chapter.

Maeve smiled. The day was going better than she hoped.

She hadn’t seen Isen and John, and Blyke at least acted out respect for her (considering his best friend hated her right now).

Remi wasn’t avoiding her and she was also a best friend of Isen. Plus, she pushed her over earlier.

She would always be thankful for Remi. Anyone would.

She hadn’t seen Seraphina. She didn’t really want to see her today. Or tomorrow. Or the day after that.

She would have to talk to her eventually. The same with everyone.

A chill ran down her bones every time she thought of how Seraphina talked to her. Talked down to her.

She was scared. Scared of a low tier. That was laughable.

She was a god tier for crying out loud. She shouldn’t have to fear anything. Anything but the authorities.

“Maeve, we need to talk.” She glanced up to John. What had she done this time?

“What?” she replied. It had came out gruffer than she meant it to.

At least she had had her lunch already.

He grabbed her wrist, jarring her shoulder when he tugged her forward. She crashed hard into his chest. Enough so she saw light.

Numbness floated in with the fog as something wrapped around her waist and her feet no longer touched the floor.

Then she was sitting on a desk in a classroom. She glanced around in the near clear room. A plain, empty classroom. Why were they were?

“Why did you bring me here?” she questioned, frowning.

Her free time drained away into the nothing of the soil of the ground.

“Why did you tell Remi that?” he sneered. Her eyes wondered towards his tight fists as his sides.

Why today? Why ever?

Why did she ever say yes?

“Tell Remi what?” she asked. She hadn’t given anything away to her, had she?

“That you had a bad day yesterday,” he replied, glaring at her like she had committed some grave crime.

He crossed his arms over his chest and continued to stare at her.

But what she had said had multiple factors. It wasn’t solely because of her and John announcing they were a public couple yesterday. Couldn’t something else contribute to it?

It was nothing to do with him. It barely had anything to do with him.

It was Isen. Isen was the one who broke up with her. John hadn’t…

Oh shit.

John’s fingers stroked through her shiny mint hair.

John had hit her. He’s referring to the physical abuse, and the relationship in general. He knows it’s wrong.

The cafeteria scene… She hadn’t wanted to do it. Did John know that?

It had been about making their relationship public. That was what John was thinking.

“Why did you tell her?” he spat at her. His fingers tightened around her wrist. Pain stabbed down her arm.

She snatched her arm back, glancing up at him in fear of a retaliation, and brought her other arm to hold the throbbing wrist, rubbing it slightly with her fingers.

“Look, I’m not a morning person,” she began, beginning her waffle of a speech. “My day was just long yesterday. Studying and all.”

She entwined her fingers of her hands.

John’s hand came to rest at the lower length of her mint hair around her the same height as her shoulder blades.

“Don’t lie, Maeve,” he snarled in her face. Some spit landed on her face and she slowly brought her hand up to wipe it away. Her stomach turned.

Violet eyes met gold eyes.

Her heart dropped.

**His grip tightened** on her hair, pain beginning to stab in thin pricks at her scalp.

“You like to lie, don’t you?”

His breath his her face as he whispered.

She flinched back. Pain stabbed along her hair strands.

She furrowed her eyebrows. Her head was fuzzy.

What was he referring to? The physical abuse? Or was he insecure about the relationship?

She wasn’t sure why he was insecure. It wasn’t like she could leave anytime soon.

Why would he be insecure about their relationship?

“Be honest, Maeve,” he growled down her ear. Her knuckles turned white with her grip on the table edge.

“Everything,” she pierced together. “It was draining.”

She clenched her teeth.

“What exactly?” he asked, gently but with the threat with the hand in her hair.

She did not speak. She could not say.

“Maybe it was you arranging a meeting with Cecile without informing me,” she suggested through gritted teeth.

He let go.

She breathed out.

Her body was slammed into. One spot on her face. Red pain seared through in white hot pain. Her body jolted back; she flew back from the force.

She crashed across the table. The iron cold pain stabbed through the bones of her back, elbows and shoulders.

The cold wood of the table as the stones beneath her lying body.

She cried out, the sharp pain screeching across the room.

A warm, hard hand covered her mouth. Nails dug into her cheek.

“Jealous, are we?”

Why would she be jealous? He knew what she was referring to. They were both there with Cecile. She looked over their interactions. She was the one who did most of the talking. Why would she be jealous?

“That hypocritical, isn’t it?” He continued to whisper down her ear. “Considering how much you like to hang out with the two idiots. I should be concerned about Arlo as well too. Who knows who you allow to touch you?”

A tear strolled down her cheek. It stung the cuts. Ripping pain that severed her face.

She wasn’t a whore: a slut. John was her first boyfriend. Her only boyfriend. She didn’t see anyone else, did she? Nothing was her fault.

She wasn’t a whore, was she?

“Why are you crying?” John cupped her face in his hand, forcing her head to turn to look into his barring gold eyes.

An arm wrapped around her.

“Why do you care so much?” she asked quietly, whispering.

“My girlfriend’s crying. Am I supposed to not care?”

“Maybe if you didn’t hit me, I wouldn’t be crying,” she responded, glaring up at him.

“You wouldn’t be hit if you didn’t lie.”

“I don’t lie.”

“That’s another lie.”

She raised an eyebrow at him through her tears from where she sat on the table.

“I don’t think this is -”

“Don’t finish that sentence!” he shouted, snatching her wrist up with a sharp pain jabbing into the joints of her wrist. “It will work out if you quit lying.”

“I’m not lying,” she hissed back like a snake, attempting to tug her wrist away from John.

“Then what were you doing yesterday?” he questioned. Why didn’t he question this before? It had happened yesterday. Only yesterday. He could have asked. Was sex the only thing on his mind that time?

“I was having sex with you,” she replied.

“Before that,” he responded curtly.

“I was studying,” she answered. Her heart was racing, pounding, in her chest. She could never leave. This was going to end in blood.

“In the boys’ dorms?” he asked, tilting his head at her. “Who were you studying with?”

Heat rushed to her cheeks as her heart counted to thump in her ears. Blood rushed to her cheeks.

She glanced away from the ravenette, staring down at the tip of her black shoe where her toes lay underneath.

“…Isen…” she hesitantly replied.

She refused to look up. Refused to look in his eyes.

It would only be hate in response.

“And you didn’t want to say that why?” His voice steadily increased in pitch.

  
She fiddled with her fingers.

“You didn’t seem to like him” she whispered.

“That doesn’t mean I wouldn’t mind you hanging out with him.” She looked up to him. Unwavering solid gold eyes. That was unexpected…

“You didn’t like it on Monday,” she defended, curling her fingers up into a fist in front of her chest.

“You lied first. What was I supposed to think?” he exclaimed. He flung his arms up.

She flinched.

“…” She didn’t speak. He was right. She did lie first. She kept lying. Half of their relationship was built on lies. Why did she bother to lie? Why did she even bother to lie in the first place?

_Because she did cheat_ , she realised. That was what Isen and Remi meant. She led them on. John thought she liked him and she led them on. John thought she liked him and she led Isen to believe that she was using him for attention.

“I still thought you would be offended by me studying with him,” she answered, eyes locked on the floor.

“And Remi went along with your lie?” He poked the beehive. A dead beehive.

“Weren’t you running around with a mask on and brutally attacking people before?” she replied. “She was probably scared of you.”

He pulled her hair. Attempting to pull it out as her was jolted forward. Pain stabbed through her scalp.

“All I did was reasonable,” he whispered in her ear. Shivers ran down her spine as his nails dragged along the back of her ear. “Maybe she is scared of me, but that doesn’t deflect that you lied. You have no reason to be scared of me.”

“You hit me!” she shouted in response. Her hands gripped the table.

“Before that,” he replied gruffly. He let go of her hair to shove her back.

A flash of a spark flooded through the desk to where she came to lay on the floor, pulling her knees to her chest.

She glanced up to where John’s mouth hung agape in a small oval. She watched the gears turn in John’s mind as he slowly realised that the desk was not broken – that he had not broken it – and that her ability was at play.

Then she looked away. Ashamed.

Pulling her knees even tighter to her chest, her arms encircled them as heavy sobs began to rock her body.

  
“Why the fuck are you the one crying?” he shouted and aimed a kick that would have collided with her knee if it had not passed through her body. “Fucking liar!

“You are not the one who has been cheated on!” he exclaimed. His fists clenched tightly at his sides. “You are not the one with cheating, lying, scum as a girlfriend.”

Don’t listen, don’t listen, don’t listen.

The table screeched out of the way.

Her heart pounded, wanting to burst out of her chest.

She glanced up from where her face was buried in her arms to where John crouched down in front of her ghost form.

“Was it that Isen was doing your homework for you on Sunday? Where you lying to cover your stupid ass?” he questioned, his tone quickly becoming mocking at a steep rate. “Did he ask for sexual favours from you in return? Was that it? Did you not want me to find out?”

He reached out with his hand to hold her cheek. He wasn’t able to touch her.

“You don’t have to lie to me. I could have helped you.”

She shook her head between sobs.

“I can fuckin’ do my own work,” she responded, resulting shouting in his face.

“But will you get the same grades with your own work,” he taunted, standing up. He stood over her. “Isen’s a smart guy. You could simply have him do your homework for you or have him tutor you. I know you’re not risk, so you can easily pay him through acts instead.”

“I can fuckin’ get good grades without any fuckin’ help!” she creamed, blocking the sound from leaving the room. “And Isen would do it for me free anyway.”

She sniffed, glancing away. She held her chin up high.

“Right? I’m surprised he even talked to you after yesterday.” He rolled his eyes at her.

“Wait, you did that on purpose?”

She jumped to her feet, aiming a punch to his face that passed through his body.

“What on purpose?” He smirked.

You made Isen break up with me, she thought. But he didn’t. She made sure of that. He didn’t know about the relationship.

She was trapped here.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> 2041 words.
> 
> I hoped you like the chapter.
> 
> If you can't tell by the language or the amount of words in each chapter as of late, I've been feeling bored with the current point the plot is out. Luckily, I think I know now where the sooner chapters are going to head, so hopefully the writing quality improves.
> 
> Also, I've read through this chapter, so hopefully I've caught all the typos and grammar errors. However, I was able to go through it more thoroughly last week, so there might be a few mistakes I didn't catch.
> 
> Thank you for reading. 


	54. Partnership

_The air whistled passed her as she flew through the air Gravity pulled her back down to the ground._

_Out of the twist, her body angled down so she landed onto the elastics held by the springs beneath the fabric. And she sprung back off._

_The routine ended soon. Just one more move left. One more move left to perform._

_Her feet connected with the elastic of the trampoline bed. With a slight push, she sprung back up and she was flying up through the air again before she went into a ball and rolled forward. She summersaulted 360 as the applause clapped for the finishing performance on another trampoline throughout the room._

_Again, her feet contacted with the elastic strung bed of the trampoline, but this time she bent her knees to stop the bounce._

_Turning on her foot, she lifted her arms up into a V as her green leotard shimmering under the blaring lights of the sports hall._

_Cheers radiated out across the near by gathered crowd around her and she smiled before she turned her attention downwards. She walked to the edge of the trampoline and sat so her legs hung off the edge. Then, with her hand to her side, she pushed and slid off onto the ground below._

Recommendations: regional trampolining

Vault

Turf wars

Further details: (fighting style) her aura manipulation ability ‘stand by’ can block others from using their ability, halve others abilities, or increase the abilities levels temporarily by 1.5x with possible permeant effects when used over a long period, unlike the associated drugs with the same effects. Block can only work on a few people at a time (depending on the level of the target). Dampener can work on a spot with a diameter of 20m. Booster works on a few at a time, though not close to or above her own level as well.

Currently appears to be able to copy abilities, particularly strength enhancer abilities (whether a preference or limitation is unknown) at the same or weaker strength when compared to the original user.

Warning: late bloomer

It is odd, isn’t it?” Vaughn started, pushing his thin framed glasses back up his nose with one finger. “That ‘late bloomer’ is the only detail provided in the warning. Is it really an issue? Or is it just a normal detail that in any different society wouldn’t be included in the entire report?”

“Late bloomers do show more signs of violence than the average student,” Keene replied. He stood somewhere off in the office behind where Vaughn sat.

“That’s a myth,” Vaughn responded. “Studies have shown that they commit a similar number of violent acts as mid tiers, if not more. Especially when compared to those of their own levels. They only stand out more as they are either stronger or the fact that they are a late bloomer or even both.”

“They should not be violent at all,” Keene suggested like this wasn’t a conversation they had regularly. To be fair, it was less than weekly. “They’ve experienced violence.”

“No one significant (or anyone at all) condemns it,” Vaughn replied. “It is still a part of our society because the majority of the population agrees with it. When no ones agrees with you, you start to believe that you are in the wrong.”

Keene sighed. “Is she in the school or not?”

“She’s in.”

Was English boring?

Well, it depended on the book. As English teachers can’t chose good books, it was boring.

Seriously, how was ‘Blood Brothers’ ever considered good/ The language was simplistic, way too simplistic. And that plot! The plot was absolutely horrible. He felt he could do better. They did nothing with the concept.

Luckily, they finished everything to do with that play last lesson. And he had done the project.

A new topic now. He hoped it was nothing like ‘Blood Brothers’. It could be news writing, he always enjoyed that. He didn’t need to revise much for it. He could be a reporter for a career. A career he imagined would be very successful.

He would like to do it for a career.

Not that he trusted this teacher after she said that Liverpool and some other northern England city were bigger than London in the late 1800s. London has a population of 8 million currently, just rising past the population the city held before World War 2. It was at 3 million in 18821 and 6 million in 1901. For Liverpool, the second highest in population at either date, had a population of half a million in 1881 and 700 thousand in 1901.

No where near what she said. Such a stupid teacher. It made you wonder how she got her teaching license. Did they just give anyone a teaching license? No background check?

Did she even pass school? She could have easily just past English for not having to memorise facts. She definitely didn’t know anything about towns, so technically geography. They didn’t overly do cities and the population of cities in geography.

Oh, that was when they were learning poems. She said it when talking about an English poem, which was set in London.

Anyway, what was the teacher talking about?

Oh, the new project. They were going to write short stories. That was nice. Definitely better than ‘Blood Brothers’ or watching the teacher make easy fact checkable mistakes during a lesson.

But in pairs! Why pairs? He didn’t trust anyone else’s skills with writing in this room, including the teacher, unless their name is Seraphina and he knew Seraphina would force him not to work. He didn’t have as much will power as John.

He could end up with anyone. Remi would be nice, but he didn’t want to work with Seraphina or even Blyke.

Oh, Remi was just paired with Seraphina. Maybe she would get Seraphina to actually work with her.

Maybe he could ask the teacher, so he could work on the project by himself without any partner to worry about. But she wouldn’t say yes to that as that would leave someone else without a partner.

He wished he could choose his own partner. He actually wouldn’t mind Blyke.

“Isen and Maeve.”

Wait no. Take the clock, reverse by a minute and actually change the universe that way.

This could not be happening.

“Now, you can talk to your partner,” the teacher stated, slamming the book shut before sitting down in her chair and burying her face in the computer screen.

“Hi,” Maeve squeaked, standing up above his desk on the other side.

_Fuck no. She’s going to try to take advantage of this._

“Quit ignoring me.” She waved a hand in front of his eyes. “Do you want to get a good grade or not?”

He pushed his chair back as he stood. “I’m going to ask Miss for a new partner.”

“No, you’re not,” she responded before he could blink. Her fingers curled tightly around his wrist. “That isn’t necessary.”

The words on his tongue were frozen by her glare.

He found himself sitting back down, staring up longingly into Maeve’s glowing violet eyes.

“So, what do you want to do?”

_Stay with you,_ he thought as he smiled dreamily up at her.

“Whatever you want to do,” he replied.

Maeve furrowed her eyebrows.

“This isn’t a good thing if both of us don’t have any ideas for what to do.” She sighed.

He continued to stare up at her. The school shirt curved softly around her breasts. He smiled as he leant his head in his hands.

“Can you quit staring at me?” she asked, leaning on the desk.

“No,” he answered, smirking.

“It’s making me uncomfortable.”

“Why would it make someone like you uncomfortable?”

“Because it’s creepy,” she replied. She walked around the desk and pulled a chair up to sit next to him. “You don’t like me anyway.”

“Why do you think I don’t like you?” he asked.

“You…” She paused. Oh, we’re back here, are we? “You didn’t want to be around me.”

“Yeah, you are irritating,” he responded, glancing away.

He focused on the lined paper of his exercise book. It was like the fog had risen to the sky. He needed an idea.

Why had he been staring at Maeve? She was hot but he knew that staring at someone, especially for looks, was wrong and creepy (like she stated). The only person he had massively stared at was that fourth year who was rumoured to… and John.

Okay, that was a lie. He could not remember all the incidents, but it was all for the newspaper club.

He hacked into places, websites, more nowadays.

“I don’t have any idea, but the class is almost over anyway, so we should go to your room after school and discuss it there,” she suggested. Her elbow rested on the desk with her cheek pressed against the palm of her hand.

  
“I’m doing it myself. I’ll give you stuff to read out in presentations,” he stated, flicking through to the front of his book.

“No!” his eyes flicked to her. He was not expecting that. Did she really care that much?

“I’ll help. This is supposed to be a group project. We’re supposed to work together to complete it.”

“I don’t want you to help!” he replied, a hoarse shout to mask the volume. Why did he even bother? He knew she would do this.

“Then I’ll run the project,” she stated, reaching forward towards his book. He snatched her wrist.

“No, for all I know you will get us Fs.” She rolled her eyes at him in response.

“I won’t,” she responded, pulling her waist out of his grasp. “And I’m not going to get any free work from anyone. I came to this so I wouldn’t be lazy.”

Crossing his arms over his chest, he replied, “So, would you like me to do the project for you?”

“No, I would rather have to do it all by myself than have someone else do it for me.”

“Well, I guess we will have to do it together then.” He sighed. “Mine or your room, half an hour after school?”

“Yours,” she replied. He glanced up at her. Wouldn’t she feel more comfortable in her room? He knew he would with everything that had happened between them.

“Why mine?” She mentioned that earlier. He disliked the idea of being in a room alone with her, especially when his nearest help would be Zeke.

“Do you want John to walk in on us at any time?” It went unsaid that this was a continuing issue that she had had before, nor that he would not doubt John would come to his dorm room if he figured out where they were. Or just guessed or anything like that.

“Okay, my room then.”

The bell had rung ages ago to let the finale of the day be heard. Now Isen was waiting in his room with a t-shirt and jeans on. Maeve sure could take her time and was doing this at the current period of time.

He regretted agreeing to meet her in his room. It was a terrible idea. He had forgotten John shared that English class with them (a quiet participant that sat in the back) and it wasn’t like Zeke would say no if John came to the door.

He would be alone with Maeve too. Maybe she wouldn’t try anything but he didn’t trust her.

  
And it was easier to focus in the library. The librarian would make sure they didn’t get off track or that anything else went down.

There was a knock at the door.

He leaped up to his feet and rushed to the main part of his dorm. Zeke couldn’t answer the door. If he did, he would know for definite that Maeve was in here if John ever came to the door.

When he opened, he stared at the entrance way.

Zeke had answered the door.

His heart stopped.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> 2004 words.
> 
> Sorry if there are any grammar mistakes in this chapter. I was unable to go through as thoroughly as previous weeks.
> 
> Also, I'll clarify what Vaughn and Keene are saying (mostly because I changed my mind slightly since I first wrote it but I can't change it to keep with the flow of the story). Although the crime rates are higher in low tier districts, most are petty crimes. The most violent crimes relating to abilities are done by mid tiers to elite tiers (totally not because high tiers can just flash a number and get away with it). The entitlement that the hierarchy allows to breed in mid tiers and elite tiers means that they are more likely to think that due to their level they will get away with it and they deserve to do it. These are mostly done in low tier districts because the crimes are mostly done against low tiers. I'm fairly certain the original paragraph read differently to that.
> 
> The teacher rant is about a substitute teacher I did have for several years and who likely affected my grades because she didn't know what she was doing. That's why there are so many British literature references. I'm sorry about including it. 
> 
> Also, I'm thinking of changing the trigger warnings from having '.....' in front of it to just having specifically three words at the beginning of a paragraph where the warning starts in bold and doing the same where it ends. I think this would be less disruptive to the chapter. This is what I'm doing to new warnings and I'll change it at some point to the older chapters.
> 
> Thank you for reading. 


	55. School Project

Why? Why? Why was she paired with Isen? Did the teacher not try to put people good in the class with people who weren’t good at English? And average with average or better? Why put two of the possible best in the class together?

Oh wait. What was her previous English grade like? How much did she procrastinate last time?

It was bad, wasn’t it? They weren’t put into sets based off grades at Wellston, but more off level with the occasional swap, which was why the majority of the strongest third years shared their maths, English and sciences classes. With her or not. Apparently that worked better as it gave people hope that weren’t good at the subject and allowed those good at it to become better by teaching it to others. Unfortunately, the school still called it top and bottom set, so… the poor low tiers.

Her knuckles racked against the door.

Her heart thumped.

Hopefully, Isen will answer. She crossed her fingers, arms at her sides. She hated Zeke.

She absolutely hated Zeke.

Zeke answered the door.

The words in Zeke’s throat where cut off like a knife through the air by Maeve’s glare. She had to hold back the scream in her throat to go get Isen.

“This isn’t John’s dorm,” he stated, smirking down at her. Why was this idiot so tall? He was barely shorter than Arlo.

Shouldn’t he be shaking in her presence? What the fuck was he doing? Standing up to her? Wasn’t he a big believer in the hierarchy?

“Go get Isen, you imbecile!” She started at a shout before turning it into a whisper shout. She didn’t want anyone (nearby or not) to hear her. Not hear her here.

She didn’t doubt that Zeke would allow John into his dorm. He seemed to dislike her for some reason. The kind of dislike where you wouldn’t fear what someone could do to you. It was weird.

“There’s no need. I’m right here.” She glanced to the direction of Isen’s bedroom, where he was standing in the doorway like the day before.

Not the day before.

Rushing past Zeke, practically pushing him out of the way, she ducked to Isen’s side in the doorway and into his bedroom.

The door clicked behind her.

“You called him an imbecile!” His arms cradled his stomach as he slid down the door in laughter.

“He is an imbecile.” She shrugged.

He rolled his amber, red eyes. “Are we going to start or not?”

“Yeah.” She sat down on Isen’s bed, leaning back slightly, and watched as Isen switched on his laptop. “I think we should start with the main character.”

“Why the main character? Shouldn’t we nail down the plot first?” he questioned, looking at her with doubt. Her nails dragged across her arm.

“We are struggling to come up with the plot. We do not have forever, so we need to start somewhere. Plus, the protagonist goals, behaviours and personality can change why things happen or how or even the overall outcome.”

“Maybe we should get the genre first though. It can change how we design the protagonist.”

“Oh, Miss gave us a sheet on what we need to write.” With the handbag that she brought with her that was now by her feet, she pulled out a plastic wallet and then brought out the sheet. “Miss gave me the sheet. Didn’t you see it? We’re doing horror/ thriller.”

“Horror?” he questioned, leaning forward in his spinny chair. “How are we supposed to not write a slasher?”

“By not writing a slasher. Do you want to write a slasher or something?”

“No, that’s become a cliché.” He glared at her with his arms crossed over his chest.

“Then maybe we should do something else.” She paused. She bit her lip. “Like a psychological horror.”

“Psychological horror?”

“Like Tokyo Ghoul – But not Tokyo Ghoul. We would use imagery to portray parts. Colour scheme can be something to focus on. It would be something to include in the presentation.”

“The presentation?” he questioned. Violet eyes met red as she glanced up at him to raise an eyebrow.

“Did you not focus in class today?” she asked, her arms leaning against the knees below her short skirt lines as she faked a dramatic sigh. “Oh god, Isen. What am I going to do with you?”

“Seriously?” he responded, staring at her as he leant back.

Returning to her normal stance, she continued. “We need to present what we researched in a presentation. We don’t focus on the plot in the presentation as others will get to read it eventually. There would be no point to that, especially as they rate the stories and the top story will get a prize. The teacher gives the grades based on techniques in the works, the presentation and the originality.”

He… He really hadn’t paid attention in class that day, had he? This must have been after he had been paired with Maeve, when he was in his own head. How long had he actually zoned out for? How much did he miss? That could be a serious mistake. He could have missed so much information. So much that could affect his grade in that class. He didn’t know how much damage it could do.

“Well, then we should try the best we can.” Maeve’s violet eyes gazed at him. That day, she had worn a short teal mini skirt that much have barely covered half her thigh if it even covered that. Then a light pink tank top was worn over her chest, tucked into the skirt, with a low cut over her chest and thin straps that didn’t fully cover her beige bra.

He hadn’t seen her wear something so revealing in the last few days. Nor had he seen her change her hair colour (he assumed the lilac hair she had worn often up until a few days ago was her natural hair colour). What changed?

“What ability do you think the protagonist should have?” he started, changing the topic. As she stated previously, they didn’t have forever and he had other homework for other classes. “I personally think healing.”

“Yes, healings good,” she responded. Her smile was so sweet. “It means the protagonist wouldn’t be able to defend themselves (a level of vulnerability), but by the end of an event, they would be able to get back up.”

“If we’re going with the vulnerability route, should we also make the protagonist be a girl and short to add another level of weakness?” he asked.

Maeve nodded. She leapt to her feet and rushed over to him. Her arms wrapped around him.

  
“Uh, let go.” He attempted to shove her off, but she had let go before he actually could do anything successfully.

“No need to get physical,” she responded, smoothing down her skirt as she stood in front of her. “You refused to yesterday.”

“Don’t bring that up!” He slammed his hand down on his desk. “It is completely irrelevant and it will only make the situation worse.”

“What situation? The situation where you broke up with one for no reason.”

“Why does cheating suddenly fit into ‘no reason’?”

“You wouldn’t have done differently in my shoes.”

“But I’m not in your shoes. I’m sorry that I had to protect myself,” he replied, crossing his arms over his chest where he stood up from his chair. He shouldn’t trust her. She had lied before.

“Protect yourself? Are you scared of John or something?” She giggled, covering her mouth as she did so.

“You’re not scared of John?” he questioned, staring at her. “Who am I kidding? You are dating. You probably love him.”

His heart skipped a beat.

“I don’t love him!” she shouted back, getting to her feet.

“Well, that’s bad for you,” he answered.

She took a deep breath and flopped back down to where she had been sitting previously. She leant her elbows against her knees as she looked at him.

“So, do you want to meet up tomorrow?” she asked, shiny eyes looking at him.

  
“Yes, err, after school tomorrow,” he responded. “I’d prefer the library.”

Her eyes went wide. Then a blank face formed. “I’d prefer to meet her. The library’s too open?”

“Too open?” he questioned. Was he right to be concerned about Maeve wanting to be alone with him?

She glanced down toward her feet and twiddled with her fingers. Seriously? “People talk about me behind my back.”

Oh.

Remi leant against the edge of the table. She crossed her arms over her chest. She didn’t have all day. She wanted to catch Blyke during his free.

What did Cecile want to talk about anyway?

She really wanted to talk to Blyke. She hated having to stand in wait for what is likely going to turn out to be a stupid reason. Cecile always wanted to talk to her for what other people would consider to be dumb reasons.

The door banged against the wall.

She glanced up. Cecile stood there in all her glory. She was angry, for whatever reason. Whatever reason Cecile has.

“You need to talk sense into Maeve,” Cecile stated after checking the wall where the door slammed into it and then closing the door much more softly. Then she walked forward to stand a few metres away from her. “She’s going to ruin the school.”

She glared at Cecile before blinking. She hadn’t been in the conversation that Cecile had with Maeve. Maybe Maeve did sound crazy to Cecile.

Maybe Maeve was crazy.

“How is she going to ruin the school?” Remi questioned. She was still thinking that this was a Cecile specific problem, leaning towards a miscommunication.

“She’s trying… She’s trying to…” Cecile growled, clasping a fist at her side.

“She’s so infuriating. I don’t know why John would choose her as Queen.”

“John didn’t choose her as Queen. John didn’t choose any queen,” she replied, gazing at Cecile steadily. “Maeve dethroned me. Tats how it has always worked.”

“Dethrone her back then.”

Cecile had never liked her, Queen or not. Why did she suddenly appear to want Remi as Queen? Did she consider her easier to dethrone than Maeve?

“I can’t dethrone her,” she responded. “Not yet anyway. Maeve’s a god tier. Don’t you know that?”

“Yes, I do. That doesn’t change that she’s going to ruin the school. Power doesn’t equal right, you know that right?”

Why was Cecile suddenly the one stating this? This was almost as weird as the Arlo one. At least she already knew Cecile was a snake.

“You weren’t saying that a few weeks ago. What is the problem anyway?”

“She wants to… She wants to.” Cecile’s fists tightened. “She wants to stop the… Well, she wants to break up the hierarchy.”

“Really?” She wasn’t’ even going to try to argue whether breaking up the hierarchy in the school would be good or not. There was no point here. “I thought her plan was to decrease violence in the school. How does that break up the hierarchy?”

Although, she didn’t like the hierarchy, she knew that Maeve wasn’t trying to dismantle it. Maeve probably didn’t fully realise the extent of the problem.

“It gives the low tiers hope that life outside here will be the same when they aren’t put in their place,” Cecile explained. “If they get used to the wrong lifestyle, imagine what it will be like when the train hits them?”

“Didn’t Maeve also bring up the homework issue? Even if you don’t think the violence is a major issue, mid tiers force those weaker than them to do their homework. Homework is designed to enforce learning that is done in class and plus some is counted towards overall grades. Isn’t that affecting mid tiers massively?”

“They need to do what they can to get good grades. Plus, it enforces learning. It will improve the low tiers grades as well,” Cecile responded, brushing it off.

“You just missed the point,” Remi replied, her voice monotone. She really should not care about what Cecile thought. She was a lost cause, at least at the very moment.

Cecile stormed out the room.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> 2036 words.
> 
> I want to clarify, I wasn't inspired by 'Joker's Aftermath and Transition' for the class project plot line. I realised a week or so after writing the last two chapters that someone might think it was. It wasn't. I kind of forget about it when I wrote these chapters.
> 
> Also, the next few chapters will get shorter, but they will get longer for a bit after that. I just couldn't write enough and keep to the same plot in these chapters.
> 
> I hope you liked this chapter. Thank you for reading.


	56. Trust

Books slammed into the desk that Blyke’s head laid against. His rest was disturbed, vibrations ringing through his head, but he didn’t want it to end. Still, he glanced up.

Remi stood on the other side of the desk, leaning over the desk to look at him.

“Blyke, are you getting enough sleep?” Remi’s fingers brushed through his hair.

“I stayed up doing homework, then spent ages on my phone and then John decided it was a great idea to have a nightmare at 3am, an hour after I had properly gone to sleep,” he replied, placing his hand over his mouth as he yawned.

Why was he the one who had to share a dorm with John? He had way too many nightmares and he thought he had a lot.

“How does John having a nightmare have to do with you? Did he come to talk to you about it?” she questioned, tilting his head in question. She was adorable.

Why was she smirking?

Pushing his head to be a bit up more, he responded, “He screamed probably the entire boys dorm down.”

“Oh.” Her mouth hung agape.

He glanced at her for a further second and went to rest his hand back on the desk.

“Hey.” Remi poked his shoulder. He glanced up to notice that she had moved over to the side of the desk. “I’ve got an idea for a club.”

“Why a club?” he asked. This was way too much effort for the morning.

“It is a club that is to be a safe haven for students,” she explained. “The school really needs one.”

“So, when are we starting then?” he asked, glancing up to the side where she stood with her soft pink bangs falling in her bright red eyes.

“You’re agreeing to it?” she questioned, standing up straighter in shock.

“Why wouldn’t I agree to it?” he responded, yawning again. His hand barely managed to cover his mouth in time.

“Meh, you sounded annoyed,” she replied before snatching up his wrist. With a smile, she continued, “Anyway, come with me to talk with Vaughn.”

“Vaughn?” he questioned. They were seriously asking the headmaster about a club.

“More another member of staff, I guess.” She shrugged playfully and offered a handout to Blyke. He accepted it and stood up. “Someone high up in the school.”

He nodded and they left towards the office near one of the buildings where the reception of the school was. They checked in with the receptionist and were sent off to a waiting room up just beyond a set of stairs.

Soon, both of them were called in.

The office belonged to Keene and he accepted the idea. He thought it was a good idea and gave them an empty classroom to set up in.

Walking to a room, Blyke glanced over to Remi, who was on her phone.

“Who are you texting?” he asked, trying to peek at her phone.

“Maeve and Isen.”

“I don’t think they want to be texted together,” he said. He had listened to many rants from Isen about Maeve in the last day. Too many.

“I’m not,” she replied. She placed her phone in her blazer pocket. “I’m asking Isen if he wants to come and same with Maeve. Plus, if John disagrees with the club (I don’t think he will), Maeve can stand up for the club.”

He nodded. She had a point with John disagreeing with the club’s existence. He didn’t make much sense to Blyke, but surely Maeve could talk sense into him.

They turned into a classroom and they began to set up the room. They had found a banner and were currently painting it be put it up.

Reaching up to the ceiling, she finally put the last corner to attach it to the wall.

_He can go to the hell for all I care._

Her ankle rocked back and then her hair whistled forward in front of her face. There was no support behind her. She was in the air, falling back to the end.

And the table was falling down with her.

Blyke’s arms clasped around her body before she could hit the floor of the room, but that didn’t stop the table from continuing to fall.

Red blasted out around them. The table was flung back, crashing into the wall.

She glanced up into Blyke’s gold eyes. Strands of his red hair fell into his eyes.

“You never did that when we were training with Ella,” she commented before she giggled into her hand.

“I did some practicing after that.” He glanced towards the side, towards the door, before he looked back at her and smiled. “Don’t worry. I stayed in school for it.”

After a moment of silence, Remi replied, “We should fight again some time. And train with Ella, thought that might take some persuasion.”

“She will probably agree in a safer environment,” he answered, resting his arms against the ground as he waited for Remi to move. “Then again, I didn’t know her that well.”

“I’m not sure she would agree,” Remi responded, resting her hand on his shoulder. “It always felt like she would only agree to keep you out of danger. But do you think she would agree to be a vigilante again?”

“Are _you_ thinking of becoming a vigilante again?” he questioned. Her heart skipped a beat.

“No, no, n. I was merely concerned she would become one after her sister’s murder.” She squeezed his hand. “As her sister was reported to be killed by Volcan. The first kill of Volcan’s that the victim was not a vigilante.”

Blyke stared at her, remaining silent.

That… That sounded like her, didn’t it?

“Yeah, a common story,” he replied. He glanced at her and she stared back, her face slowly turning red.

“It’s a relatable case,” she responded, almost defensively. Her face was burning up now.

She glanced way from him. This was too close to the line. He must know that she wants to become a vigilante again now. He’ll check that she doesn’t go outside at night for that.

She glanced around the room, avoiding his sweet gold eyes, ad her eyes caught on the window. The window by where the table had fallen from and then was flung back up was cracked in a spiral. That was an issue.

They could get in some serious trouble for that.

“You… You broke the window,” she stated, staring at it.

Blyke followed her eyeline to the window.

“Oh fuck.”

“I guess we can ask Keene to fix it,” Remi suggested, a weak smile on her face.

Maeve’s heart raced as she waited in the empty classroom as the clock ticked lunch by.

She chewed over the bubble gum in her mouth. She needed to have the raspberry flavour more often. She needed to have bubble gum more often. It was a nice distraction.

The door clicked open. She glanced up to where John entered the room, hanging by the door as he slowly closed it behind his back.

“What are you chewing?” he asked.

“You sound like a teacher.”

“Can’t I be curious?” he answered before laughing. He smiled.

Once the door clicked close, he walked over to where she sat on one of the desks in the middle of the classroom. He leant against the table in front of her.

“Guess you can be, but I’m not giving you any,” she replied, smiling up at him.

There were good moments.

“It’s chewing gum, isn’t it?” He smiled back. “Anyway, how is your English project going?”

“Well, though I would have wanted to get more done. I think Isen just wanted to get me out of there,” she explained. Then her eyes started to wander around the room as her heart raced.

“What did you end up doing there?”

“We discussed what we wanted to do and we managed to come up with a main character and a possible storyline,” she answered. “I would have liked to get more done though.”

“Did you do anything else?”

“No, unless you count arguing with Zeke,” she replied, crossing her legs. “I called him an imbecile.”

She laughed, her arms grasping her chest, before ending it in a choke.

John smiled. “Guess it must be annoying to live with Zeke. To live with someone like that.”

“I’m not sure how Isen handles it. He’s an asshole. Did you know how he acted when I arrived at Isen’s door yesterday?”

“No.”

“He acted like I had made a mistake when I turned up at his door. He had the audacity to assume not only that I wasn’t at the right door, but he wasn’t scared of me at the moment I made my anger at him known. Like, who does he think he is?”

“Zeke’s always had an inflated ego,” he replied, bursting out a laugh. “But maybe its because of that slanderous article Isen wrote about you?”

“I guess…” She glanced at the wall where some posted were hung up on a board in the classroom. “But he should still be scared of a 5.1.”

“Zeke’s still an asshole. He’s got a grasp on power, but he doesn’t understand that he’s hanging off the edge,” he answered. “Anyway, are you doing the project today?”

She gazed into his gold eyes.

“Yeah, we’re meeting up again.”

“Where?” he asked, leaning his chin on his palm.

“Isen’s dorm.”

He raised an eyebrow at her. “Why his dorm? There is the library, and even your dorm. Not that Remi’s the most trustworthy either.”

She was the one to raise an eyebrow at him this time.

“More trustworthy than Zeke.”

She nodded, smiling brightly.

“But why not the library?”

“I don’t like to be out in the public student body when I can be elsewhere. They’re always talking about me or other high tiers. I find it difficult to not argue back or burst into tears,” she explained.

He took a step forward and wrapped his arms around her. She snuggled into his chest.

“Everything’s fine,” he whispered as he ran his fingers through her sky blue hair. “Their opinions don’t matter.”

“I know,” she replied, giggling. “You should take in your own words.”

She smiled into his muscled chest.

  
“You will tell me everything that happens then,” he stated, stroking along her back.

She raised her head to look at him.

“I don’t have to tell you everything or anything, you know,” she replied, twisting a strand of hair around her finger.

“What? Are you planning on fucking him?” he half-shouted, pushing her away.

She stared at him. He had pushed her.

This spiral was going down.

“No, I just thought it would be dull to have to recite work for word whenever you ask me for it,” she answered, her fist grasping at her shirt.

“You could just give me a summary,” he replied, pouting at her.

What was wrong with him?

“You are over controlling though,” she said, rolling her eyes at him. Then she took a deep breath.

“Over controlling what?” he questioned.

She glanced up at him. “You can unhealthily try to know every detail of my life. It isn’t normal.”

“Is it not normal to want to know what your girlfriend is doing? That you are happy?” he asked, running his thumb down her finger as he held one of her hands.

“You can be overbearing though,” she replied, glancing towards the door.

Her heart thumped.

The clock ticked to the next minute and the bell rang, signifying the end of lunch.

She glanced up at John, who was staring into nothing in shock, and went on her tiptoes. Then she pressed a kiss to John’s check and rushed out of the room.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> 1962 words.
> 
> I didn't have to put a warning on a chapter that contains a scene between John and Maeve. Maybe things are improving.
> 
> Its not like Jeraphina is the tag for this fic.
> 
> Also, the chapters will get longer from here, or at least the next three that I have typed up will. In fact, they should be quite a bit over two thousands words, especially the one that I have calculated to be coming out on Christmas. 
> 
> I have read through to check for grammar issues, but I barely found any so it might be that I missed a few. If I did, I'll correct them as soon as I can (or I remember too, which is sometimes the case).
> 
> Thank you for reading. Please share your thoughts in the comments.


	57. Again and Again

Maeve showed Isen the picture on her phone. She found herself, smiling as he smiled.

It was a digital drawing of a white haired girl whose long wavy hair floated behind her in the night-time wind.

The navy blue sky behind her glimmered with white stars and the crescent silver moon. It lit up her pale skin that was already hinted with the dark shadows of the night.

Her bright blue eyes glowed in the dark, multiple shades split into her irises, and there was a shine to her eyes.

She clasped a pole in her hand, in front of her body in the drawing, which she used to lean on in the sky. A diamond studded the top of the golden pole, at which point it flared out like a giant bead on top of the narrow pole.

“You’re so good at drawing,” Isen said, awe dripping from his words.

“Thank you,” she replied. Heat glowed in her face and she glanced away as Isen took her phone out of her hand to stare at the picture more.

“Can we include it in the project?” She glanced back at him, confused. Like, did he mean _this_ concept art? “I mean, you can draw other pictures for the story.”

She nodded; the blush (she imagined) covered her entire face.

“Are you seriously blushing at that?” he questioned, smirking down at her from where he sat in his desk chair. “It’s just me complimenting you.”

“It isn’t _that_ surprising,” she responded in what turned out to be a whisper.

“You act like you actually –”

“I thought we weren’t going to talk about that,” she replied, raising an eyebrow at him.

Her heart thumped. Why did the teacher pair her with Isen again?

Did he still care about her? She didn’t want it to be over, but it had to be. She couldn’t get away with cheating on John. He was too paranoid. Isen was right about that.

“Yeah, we won’t.” He turned back to the laptop on his desk, the chair swishing with him.

She glanced around his bedroom. There were still sheets on the floor (she swore that Blyke was sleeping in his shared dorm with John now) but there weren’t any chairs in the room, except for the one that Isen was sitting in. She so wasn’t going to the dinning room to get one – not when Isen shared a dorm with Zeke. She had seen too much of Zeke for an entire life time.

She glanced back to Isen. It wasn’t like there was any reason she couldn’t sit with him.

As Isen opened up a document , she sat on one of his legs.

“Maeve, get off!” Isen shouted, partially shoving her with his palm on her upper back. He didn’t succeed in moving her more than about an inch.

“There aren’t any other chairs!” she responded, gripping the arm of the desk chair with one hand and the other one gripped the other wrist on top of it.

He glared at her and she glared back.

“Fine!” He grunted. He leant back in the chair with a sigh and click on the document. “Don’t do anything.”

She nodded. “So, where do we start?”

“Possibly the inciting incident,” he suggested, leaning his head on his hand as his elbow rested on the table.

“Isn’t it always better to start at the ending?” This time he was the one to raise an eyebrow at her. “Like, the climax.”

Her face was hot again.

“Get your head out the gutter!”

She rolled her eyes at him. “You’re the one that made the assumption.”

“You went bright red,” he responded, smirking again.

“You are still the one who voiced that assumption aloud,” she replied, rolling her eyes.

“What about the climax?” he continued, bringing the topic back on track. “Want me to bring you too one?”

She swore her face couldn’t get any hotter.

  
She kicked his knee.

“Ow, hey,” he squeaked, leaning away from her. “Maybe you don’t want to do that; you are the one sitting on my leg.”

“You’re the one who has a lack of chairs in his room,” she retorted, holding her chin up high.

“I have one,” he responded, throwing his hands up for a few seconds before they went back down again.

“Yeah, the one we’re sitting on.”

“It’s still one chair. It’s not like we’re sitting on the bed,” he replied, twisting a strand of her pink hair for a few seconds before letting it go.

“Would you like to be on the bed?” She smirked back up at him.

“I think you’re the one who would like to be on the bed.”

She laughed.

“Anyway.” He cleared his throat before continuing, “What did you have in mind for the ending of the story?”

“De –” His fingers passed over her nipple, causing her to take a sharp intake of breath. “Death.”

He smirked this time. “Not well time, was that?”

“You’re the one who caused it,” she answered, huffing and glancing away.

“You’re the one who responded that way.”

“It was a natural instinct. How can you blame for it?” She held her hand up flat to her chest.

It was his turn to blush.

“Anyway,” he asked, glancing back at her. “What were you talking about the climax of the story being ‘death’?”

“Well.” _Oh god, the idea I came up with is really dark_ , she thought. Why did she ever state it? “After everything the protagonist goes through, she dies.”

“I thought we were writing a horror/thriller, not a sad story,” he replied, wrinkling his nose in disgust.

“The good horror movies involve death. So, after all the torture we put her through, she ends up dying. It’s realistic,” she explained, moving her hands with her as she spoke.

“It’s not happy,” he replied, gazing back at her.

“Why do you look at horror movies for happiness?” she questioned, tilting her head as she looked at him. “Don’t you look at horror movies for the thrill and the adrenaline rush from the fear and suspense the movie (the overall story, like for books too) creates.”

There was a silence between them for a split second where violent eyes met amber.

“Yes, but isn’t it nice to have a happy ending at the end of all that?”

His hand moved up, hesitantly in the air. His fingers brushed past over her nipple, sending a shiver down her spine.

She glanced at him, raising an eyebrow at him. He did that one purpose, didn’t he?

He smirked back.

His hand rose back up from where it rested on her thigh and brushed over her nipple again.

A damp spot had formed in her pants.

“Okay, stop.” She attempted to bat his hand away, though it was very successful, and his arm wrapped around her waist.

She took a deep breath before continuing, “Killing the main character at the end will be more original.”

Isen perked up at that and she smiled. It was working. She was going to succeed here.

“It’s a good idea.” And she wasn’t going to get any credit for the idea.

One of his fingers poked at the soft flesh of her breast. What had gotten into Isen?

“I would like something,” he whispered against her neck.

She shouldn’t.

“What? A completed project,” she replied, sarcasm welling up in her voice.

“Oh.” She glanced back at him, where his face was bright red. “That to. What should we start with?”

“Well, maybe we should start with how she dies,” she explained, leaning back against his muscled chest. It wasn’t as muscular as John’s chest. “We should start with the ending to plan out how the plot reaches that point.”

“Okay.” He smiled at her with his face in his hand. “What’s your idea for her death.”  
  


“Hanging.”

He stared at her, shocked. “Like, suicide?”

“That was my idea,” she replied, going into a whisper.

“That’s too dark.”

She nodded. The idea sounded totally different aloud to when she had thought in her head.

“Plus, I think the teacher would take us aside for that,” he replied. “In fact, she might take us aside for ‘killing’ the main character – or any other character death – especially in such a way.”

Her eyes wandered about the room. It would be a major issue if this could cause an alert from the teacher, but then there were other people other students in their class, who would also have horror/thriller as their genre for the short story.

“Maybe we could do a home invasion,” she suggested, speaking hesitantly. She glanced back to Isen, her heart racing in her chest like thunder. Damn, he was hot. Why did he have to break up with her? “It’s still a terrifying situation, something that would naturally get the blood racing, but it wouldn’t, like, get weirded out by it and it would be appropriate for school. Like, it probably wouldn’t be like an R-rated movie or something.”

Isen nodded and smiled. “That’s a good idea, but I have a different idea.”  
  


Great…

“What’s the idea?” she asked after Isen just stared at her for over a minute in silence. She almost thought he was staring at her chest.

Isen was the one who broke up with her. He didn’t like her. He wouldn’t stare at her. It wasn’t like he had touched her breasts through her clothes to get a sexual reaction out of her a few minutes ago.

“Escaping an abusive relationship,” he suggested. Then he clarified, “Physically and emotionally abusive.”

Her heart skipped a beat.

What was he talking about? He didn’t know, did he? He couldn’t know; otherwise, he would have known she was dating John before Monday. So, he couldn’t know?

Why was he bringing it up though?

“Are you okay?” he asked. How much time had passed? She didn’t think any time had passed, yet he was acting like too much time had passed.

His fingers brushed against her cheek.

What should she say? She had to say something. She had to put down his suspicions.

“Maeve,” he asked. She needed to answer. It would look more suspicious if she didn’t answer, but what could she say?

His wet lips pressed against her cheek.

What was happening? Why was he doing this? He broke up with her; he didn’t like her. He never liked her. She wasn’t worthy. She was just going to stay with John for the rest of her life.

Maybe she wasn’t awake.

Okay, she must not be awake.

“Maeve,” he whispered in her ear.

This wasn’t happening. She was asleep. This was her imagination, her overworked imagination. She needed to wake up. It was bad if this continued.

How could she wake up?

She should pinch herself. That was what they did in the movies. Although, they would turn out to be awake

So, she pinched herself. A small spark of pain responded.

“Maeve, what are you doing?” Isen cried out, grabbing her arm and pulling it away from her. He held her arm away from her, trying to keep it out of her reach.

How was this not a dream?

“Are you okay?” he asked again, pushing her light pink hair out of her face. He tucked it behind her ear.

“Yeah, yeah,” she replied, staring off into nothing. Her skirt felt way too short. It barely went down to her midthigh. Why did she wear this skirt today? Why did she wear it ever?

  
She was a slut.

“Are you sure?” he questioned. Could he read mind, or something? She was supposed to be the one who could read minds, but he seemed to know exactly what she was thinking.

Maybe it was really obvious on her face. She should practice her poker face. She would it need for John too.

“Yes,” she hissed back, turning her head to look at him and glared.

He stared at her with wide eyes.

Instead of saying anything, he reached to her and fiddled with a few strands of her hair.

Had they ever broken up? He didn’t act like they had.

She gazed up at him. He was so hot, but apparently wasn’t hers. Why could he be hers? She was a god tier; didn’t high tiers get everything they wanted? The NBG royals always got what they wanted and the same went for the royals of the boy’s school. She had even seen one of the guys get away with a rather big crime.

Focusing back in, she realised that Isen wasn’t looking at her, at least not her face, so…

She smashed her lips into his lips, wrapping her arms around his neck until he froze under touch.

She wanted more of this. Why couldn’t she have more of this?

This was better than anything she had with John.

He shoved her off him and she fell against the desk. The side jabbed at her before she pushed herself back up, so that she sat on the desk.

“What do you think you’re doing?” he shouted.

She stared at him, wide eyes. What the hell did he mean? Did he not want her to sit on the desk?

She placed her feet against the floor and stood up.

His expression of anger did not change.

“What did I do wrong?” she asked, hesitantly speaking so her words came out slowly.

“You kissed me!” he shouted, slicing a hand towards her that would have no way reached her.

She flinched.

“But –” She stared at him. What was he on about? “But you kissed my cheek…” Her eyes wandered to the floor. “And played with my hair. I thought you wanted me to kiss you, or at least that you would have liked it.”

“You weren’t reacting to anything, I wanted to see if you would react to anything,” he explained, glaring at her. “I’m sorry you took it that way.”

But him doing that did he mean he still had feelings for her, right?

“Right.” She stared down at the floor. Why did this always happen to her? “I’ll guess I’ll go.”

She started to walk away towards the door.

“I’ll text you to confirm the rest of the plot,” she stated before she left through the door.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> 2385 words.
> 
> Sorry this is later than I normally post. I was out and so wasn't able to post before now.
> 
> Two weeks until Christmas. As I said in the previous chapter, there will be an extra special long chapter in three weeks, which is also a turning point in the plot.
> 
> Actually, I haven't written what plot Isen and Maeve choose, so if you want to comment which one you would prefer, that would be greatly appreciated.
> 
> Thank you for reading. Please share your thoughts in the comments.


	58. Discussion

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Warning: physical abuse in a relationship. 
> 
> Starts when the start of a paragraph goes bold and end when the end of a paragraph goes bold.

Why did Maeve do that with Isen?

She hung her head down as she waited on the park bench.

Of course, he was joking when he touched her and kissed her cheek. Of course, he was being a douche bag.

Why did she ever put worth into her feelings for him? It was just a crush on a stupid elite tier who didn’t understand the importance of life.

She should just stick to dating high tiers. They took life more seriously. Like John.

That probably wasn’t the best comparison (he was a late bloomer after all), but still, John took her feelings seriously. He didn’t play with her feelings.

John liked to meet up every day. He asked about the day and they talked. It wasn’t a stupid fling.

Isen probably thought it was a one time fling. Something to end when its permanency came into question. Like it had ended.

School was going well though. She had already caught several unfair fights happening – some that just ridiculously over bumping shoulders in the corridors. Like, what did they want them to do? The mid tiers walked so close to the low tiers, pinning the low tiers so close to the walls, that it was impossible for them not to bump into each other.

She hated mid tiers.

She wanted to hate elite tiers too. They were the same, just with one group bring slightly stronger.

Elite tiers may as well be in the same group as mid tiers.

“Hey,” John greeted. She glanced up to look up at him.

Her heart raced.

She couldn’t tell if he was angry, or in a normal mood.

“Hi,” she replied, her voice strained and quiet. Heat rushed to her face.

“Are you okay?” he asked. HE took a seat next to her on the wooden bench.

A normal mood. She sighed in relief.

“Why did you sigh?” She glanced up at him from where she slumped against the back of the bench.

“It’s nothing,” she answered. She attempted a smile up at him. “Just a long day.”

She glanced down back of where her lower half of her legs hung off the bench. Could she ever be honest?

“You have a lot of long days,” he commented. Her eyes flicked up to him. That was a bad sigh. “Are you doing okay?”

“School is draining, as always,” she explained, faking another smile up to him. Would it fool him? “You know how it is. That teachers set so much homework, so I have so little relaxation time, especially with my role as Queen now.”

She swiped over her forehead with the back of her hand.

“But you said you didn’t have any homework when I asked to meet you here like ten minutes ago?” he questioned, tilting his head as he looked at her. “You didn’t have to meet me if you had so much homework to do.”

Fuck.

“Oh, I’ve done the homework now,” she replied as heat rushed up to her face. “I had a lot yesterday and the day before. And over the fuckin’ homework.”

She glanced back to where her legs hung off the edge of the bench. The toes of her shoes brushed against the damp grass beneath the bench.

“Good luck, I guess,” he stated.

“Plus,” she continued. She glanced up to him: no smile.

“Isen and mine’s work for the English project has to be redone as we dislike what we have done so far. We were actually concerned that the teacher would have to talk about it to us privately. It was relatively disturbing.”

“Don’t bring up, Isen, Maeve.” John glared at her. His gold eyes were hard. “Or you will make it sound like you want to talk about him.”

“No, no, I don’t,” she responded way too quickly to not be suspicious. Although, it wasn’t like she wanted to talk about Isen (that asshole), especially with John. “He’s just my project partner, so he was relevant to it.”

She clasped her hands together.

“Well, I don’t want to hear about it,” he replied, glancing away from her. “And anyway, I wanted to talk to you about something.”

“What did you want to talk to me about?” Maeve asked. She turned back to him, where he was frowning, and she crossed her arms over her chest. She didn’t want to back down.

However, this was concerning. John was mad about something and it could be anything. She found John so unpredictable. She hated it

Did Zeke hear her and Isen yesterday? They weren’t that loud, at least nothing sexual was loud, so John wouldn’t suspect anything. If he did, it would be due to paranoia. She would need to talk him out of it (if that was the case).

There was nothing sexual, so John had no reason to worry about her cheating. All he could worry about was the shouting that occurred between her and Isen. He should be worried about her physical safety.

Except most of the shouting was Isen shouting at her to get off with him and not kiss him. That would sound bad.

At least Isen would get his wish and not be John’s number one target. Apart from the fact that John was an unreasonable person.

“I’ve seen these posters for a new club called the ‘safehouse’,” he explained, his hands moving as he talked. That was the issue? Could John get any more ridiculous? She wanted to laugh. “It’s an optimistic idea that hasn’t been thought through by who I assume came up with the idea for it, who is probably Remi.

“But I’m concerned that the other ex-Royals are a part of it.” She glanced up. Was this another case of paranoia? This could get bad.

“What is wrong with the other ex-Royals?” she asked, reaching a handout to John. Gently, she laid it on his thigh. “Wait, is it Arlo?”

“Arlo is one of them, but still, that isn’t all,” he continued to explain. “The majority of the people – the elite tiers – who have volunteered to be supervisors have an active and recent history of strongly disagreeing with the club’s beliefs.

“Ventus and Meilli, for example. They pick on low tiers, and those that are generally weaker than them just for the fun of it – as a tag team. Its absolutely horrible. The low tiers don’t even stand a chance and they destroy their personal belongings – some of which are necessary parts of life nowadays.

“Then Zeke leads campaigns against low tiers, rallying mid tiers against them to beat them up without mercy. The mid tiers worship him like he’s the King of the School (even though he is no where close to being king) – he even calls himself King of the Boys’ Dormitories. If that was ever a role, he would be nowhere close to holding that position.”

She nodded, gulping.

“and you know Blyke, the co-founder of the club,” John stared at her with his dagger gold eyes with an amber hue. “He very much believes in the hierarchy with his whole heart, worships every word Arlo states. Didn’t dobut any of his words, even if all of them are lies. Which they were.

“Of course, the only time he had an issue with the King (or any Royal for that matter) was when he was a late bloomer.”

“Look, John, people change,” she interrupted before he could utter another word. “I get it; these people hurt you. Maybe they weren’t deserving of your forgiveness, but how can they improve when you don’t them the chance.”

John death glared her.

“I’ve already given Remi my blessing and it would be tiresome if we had to be unanimous in everything,” she responded, fiddling with her fingers. “You need a variety of viewpoints and sometimes those viewpoints won’t agree. Plus, we’re separate people. We will make separate decisions.

“If it does turn out to be a conspiracy against you, I’ll remove my blessing and you can do whatever you want with it, but at least give them a chance of prove their intentions.”

“They’ve already proved their intentions,” he stated. Her heart started pounding in her chest. “If they really cared, this wouldn’t be the first I’m hearing about it. They could have started it months ago, but no. They only care because they got beat up once. Meanwhile, low tiers get beat up multiple times a day.”

“So?” she questioned. Sometimes John made her confused about what he was even trying to do. She could probably put it down to paranoia again. “Didn’t you set out to help low tiers, but now that they are the ones helpings, it’s a problem? What have you done to at all help low tiers?”

“Gave them a chance to fight back,” he replied, leaning back with his arms crossed over his chest.

  
“And what did that bring them in the long run?” she asked. She had only seen worse retaliation from the low tiers fighting back.

“What Remi is doing too little, too late,” he replied, ignoring the last question.

“Better late than never,” Maeve responded.

**John raised his hand up**. It hung in the air above her face, palm directed down towards the side of his face.

Fuck. Why did she say that? She should have just agreed with him.

His hand made contact with her face. It knocked her back (she hadn’t even managed to dodge) and her head hit the back of the bench, pain erupting in her head. Swelling and bruising throbbing at the back of her head.

John pushed her head against the bench and held her there. She couldn’t move at her upper body at all as his hand pressed her further against the bench so she wouldn’t struggle.

However, she remained silent as he held her there. She didn’t struggle because he would let her go quicker if she just remained obedient. The skin around where he held her slowly turned purple.

Eventually, **he let go.**

As she straightened up, she felt around the area. It was swollen but nothing that wouldn’t be gone by the time she got back to her dorm.

Glancing back to John, she leaned forward and hugged John.

“You understand, right?” he whispered softly into her ear. He rubbed her back comfortingly as she whined against his shoulder. He giggled at her reaction as she continued to hug him.

She nodded as he continued to stroke along her back.

“Do you want to go out?” he asked. She glanced up to him from where she laid her head on his shoulder. “Like, to some of the shops nearby this park.”

“Yes.” She raised her head and pressed a kiss to his cheek.

Maeve opened the door to her dorm and poked her head in. She couldn’t see Remi, so she walked in.

She slipped her trainers off, leaving them by the door, and walked to the kitchen. No Remi still, so she prepared to make her own dinner.

A dinner of toasts and eggs as that was one of the only few dishes as she could cook. Thankfully, Remi was there to cook most of their meals.

She wished she could cook more. Or for the school to offer evening meals.

“Maeve,” she heard Remi speak behind her as she started too boil the water.

She glanced back to see Remi standing there with her arms crossed over her chest.

What happened?

“Oh, I needed to talk to you,” Maeve stated, placing the two eggs in the pan on the hob and set a timer on her phone. “It’s about some of the supervisors for the safehouse.”

“Look, John might have an issue with some of the people. He dislikes quite a lot of the higher tiers in the school,” she explained.

“But there are genuine issues with some of them,” she replied. “Zeke, for example.”

“What did Zeke do?” Remi asked, her voice drained of energy.

“To this day, he continues to bully low tiers and mid tiers, and he generally believes himself to be better than others,” she explained, leaning back against the table. “He doesn’t seem like the kind of person you want to represent a club that is supposed to be a safe haven for mid tiers and low tiers.”

“I’ll look into it,” Remi replied. “But, Maeve, I saw John hit you.”

“You’re seeing things,” she retorted, way too quickly like she had earlier.

“In the park earlier,” Remi continued, so calmly. Fuck, she had been there. She had noticed her, but it wasn’t like she took note of who was there before it happened. She quickly fixed up her facial expression back into confusion. She couldn’t let it drop. “And I don’t think it was the first time it happened.”

Why? Why? Why was Remi so smart? Or how could she figure out?

Maeve flung her hand out to Remi as her violet aura flashed on. Her fingers turned semi-translucent for a second as they were closest to Remi.

“Get out!” she shouted as her hand was in her arc.

Remi went white and slowly shuffled away back to her room as Maeve continued to glare at her with glaring violet eyes.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> A/N: 2203 words.
> 
> This chapter is posted early as I'm on school holidays so no longer would have the routine to post when I get home from school. Therefore, it could end up being late as last week and I don't really like to post the chapters later than around 5.
> 
> I've deleted the statement that I made previously about a month ago on wattpad and ao3. I don't believe it is relevant any longer and I wasn't entirely happy with it in the first place as I don't get the meaning across well in my words. The person also no longer has a platform with as many followers, so they pose no threat that one could be warned of (as he would have to be under a different name now).
> 
> Christmas is next week, so the 3000 word long chapter will be out then. I hope you enjoy it as I do believe it is a turning point in the plot. I'll also try to publish a Butterflies chapter for around new year. There is a Butterflies chapter coming out tomorrow or Sunday too.
> 
> I posted a one shot last week on ao3 called 'Words Written and Spoken'. I'll post a collection on one shots on Wattpad if there is enough demand but it would be slow publishing as I don't particularly like to write on shots. My mind just comes up with a way to turn it into a long story. Here is the link to the one shot: https://archiveofourown.org/works/28031682
> 
> (Sorry, ao3 isn't turning it into a link).
> 
> I hope you have enjoyed this chapter. Thank you for reading and sharing your thoughts in the comments would be appreciated. 


	59. Broken Bones

Ella walked along the pavement next to the buildings along the side of a woman who worked for the authorities.

The woman had a bob of straight indigo hair that framed her heart shaped face with an outstanding chip. Her golden tanned skin shined in the beaming sun of the spring and her bright red eyes followed Ella’s every move.

Her heart was a sinking ship.

She almost felt like she was the one getting arrested for her sister’s murder instead of her getting interviewed as a witness – the only witness.

Back to the woman, she wore a black suit jacket over a white button up shirt that had a solid black tie that was tied beneath the collar. She wore a pair of black trousers too.

She always found it odd the uniforms that the authorities wore. They dressed like businesspeople, not the group in charge of the law.

Ella had also forgotten the woman’s name.

She didn’t care though. A dislike boiled within her for any member of the authorities. They needed to scrap the entire system and build it up from scratch.

They walked into the Authority building and gave her documents to prove her identity because apparently, she had to do that. Actually, it did make sense.

Then she was taken by the woman to one of the room upstairs in the building and was greeted by two other officers.

One was a tall man with teal hair that was tin as a stick and his black blazer hung off his loose form.

Both officers wore a similar, though a male version, to the woman who had led her there (who had now left her).

The other man had dark pink hair that fell into his light blue yees. He was barely a few inches taller than Ella herself, who was 5 foot.

“Hello” The man with teal hair held out his hand for her to shake and she accepted. “You must be Ella Doe. I am Tomas Merritt. I will be the person interviewing you today along with my partner, Beau Burnett.”

The other man didn’t say anything as she was led over to a table in the centre of the room. Merritt pulled out a chair for her on one side of the bare table and walked one to other side to sit on the other side of the table that had two chairs instead of the one, where his partner was already sitting.

Burnett had pulled out a notebook and pen that was leant on the table to be able to write in.

“So, what were you doing leading up to the event?” Merritt asked.

As she clasped her hands in her lap, she took in a deep breath before she spoke. This could be hard.

“I was staying with my mom for the week in her house that was several neighbourhoods away from the location. It’s a more well-off area if you want to know. It was one of the only weeks my mom could take a lot of time off from without a full holiday and Mary was off too.

“My mom had a meeting with a co-worker of hers that night, so it was just me and Mary at home. We decided to go on a walk because the sky was beautiful. If you can’t tell, we went on an extended walk. We were out for at least an hour by that point.

“We thought as high tiers, we were safe out. We could defend ourselves against a gang of mid tiers; why should we be concerned in a low tier district?”

“Ah, you should never assume you should be safe anywhere,” Merritt responded to her. He smiled down at her before continuing, “Before I ask any further questions about the incident, I would like to ask about your ability?”

“Huh? Why is that relevant? Isn’t the description on my reports good enough for you?”

“We want to know how you would describe your ability. You know your ability better than the people who wrote the reports.”

She nodded.

“My ability is aura manipulation. Typically, aura manipulation allows you to copy someone’s ability and amplify it by 1.5 if you have a high enough level. However, that level will be higher than normal for me as I’m able to either amplify, decrease, or nullify. It’s the focus of my ability, so I’m not particularly talented with copying other’s abilities.

“I struggle to affect the abilities of those close to my level, which is 5.5. I recently struggled to affect the level of my friend whose level is 5.4.

“This issue is even worse when I copy abilities.”

Merritt nodded as Burnett recorded down notes on everything she was saying.

“Can you say why your sister, Mary Doe, was killed with an ability as exact same as her own?”

“Well, I saw her murderer, so yes, she does have the same ability as Mary. However, it wasn’t the exact same, unlike what you claim. Not only is her ability barely almost twice as strong as mine, still quite a bit above Mary’s, but her claws also take on a different shape. It might not be noticeable in the stab patterns.”  
  


“Do you want to explain further the difference between their abilities?”

“Venus’s ability hardens her fingers into a formation that is claw-like and then she is able to spark flames around those hardened fingers. Mary’s ability actually causes three claw-like ombre claws (I think they are made as the same material as hair and horns) to burst out her knuckles to become claws and fire forms around them. I think it’s a mutation of the ability.”

“You just named who you think the killer is? Do you mind expanding on that?”

“Venus Milla. My aunt. Our aunt.”

“And why do you think it is her?” he asked.

“Well, for one, I saw her. Two, she responded physically to us calling her ‘auntie’ and ‘auntie Venus’. Three, she is the only one person in the world who I know has fire claws besides my sister (who was the one killed) and my withering grandfather who struggles to get out by herself.”

“How do you know it wasn’t a relative who had an aura manipulation ability?”

“Only my mom and my brother also have aura manipulation. My mom’s quite a bit shorter than my aunt and she would have needed to war quite a bit higher heels than she did wear that night. Then my brother wouldn’t have been able to look like a skinny tall woman who’s actually taller than him.”

Merritt. Nodded. “Can you describe who you saw?”

“A tall woman, about 6 foot, with long honey blonde hair that was completely straight. She had gold eyes and wore a blank trench coat, a very long one that reached down to past her knees. I think she wore at least knee high black leather boots with heels that were rather high for what she was doing to go with it and she had a black hat that was like a cowboy hat. Wait, no like the hat that the cartoon character Carmen Sandiego wore, but completely black.”

Bernett nodded along and jotted notes on the lined pages of his notebook.

“So, that description fits your aunt?”

“Yes,” she replied, nodding as her hands balled up in her lap.

“So, your sister was not killed by Ember,” Merritt deduced.

  
“Wait, what?” she exclaimed, staring at the officer, her mouth agape. What was he talking about?

“You were not attacked by some unknown, but your aunt. Therefore, your aunt likely meant to frame Volcan for yours and your sister’s deaths, but you escaped and are now a witness to the crime.”

“But its not like she went out with the intentions to find and kill us. We were at least an hour away from where we were staying; how would she know we would be there?”

Merritt ignored her, glancing over at Bernett and what he was writing.

Then he asked like nothing happened. “Can you give a rundown of what happened?”  
  


She sighed, resting her forehead in her hand before she looked up to him. “Me and Mary turned into on alleyway and our aunt was standing there. We were lost and didn’t have signal. I had left my phone at home; Mayr had one on her, but she placed it in her pocket after checking it. Our aunt was wearing a black mask that covered the lower half of her face, but we still recognised her.

“She activated her ability without saying a word. She brought out her claws without a word. My sister, Mary told me to run and I did. I probably should have gone to call the authorities, but I was scared and hid in a warehouse of my mom’s nearby.”

She placed her forehead against the back of her hand that were rested on the table. Tears ran down her cheeks as flashes of memories came up.

She raised her head up and placed her hands over her cheeks as more tears rushed down her face in salty streams.

“I didn’t have to run. I could have forcibly deactivated her ability, so we could have both ran away, or Mary may have had enough time to call have both ran away, or Mary may have had enough time to call someone or give me her phone.” She sobbed heavily. “I could have done more.”

“It’s all in the past now and anyway, didn’t you say earlier that you struggle to affect abilities stronger than yours,” he said with little emotion.

“Yeah, you’re right,” she replied because what else could she do?

“So, as this was a targeted attack, there was a different motive to this murder.” Weren’t all the Ember kills targeted? “Therefore, the similarity in abilities are the only connections between the murders and we don’t even know what Volcan’s ability is.”

She nodded. Although, who the heck was Volcan?

“So, we will not press charges against Venus Milla.”

She stared at him. Continually.

“What do you mean?” she questioned as her words flowed through her mind at a snail’s pace.

“She has no previous criminal record, so what is the point of charging her with anything?” He laughed deeply. “It would just be a waste of her time.”

She was frozen speechless.

Leaping up to her feet, she slammed her hands down hard against the metal table, ringing out through the room. The chair slid back, banging against the wall.

“What the hell?!!!!” she screamed. “Are you so insane, incompetent at your job that you would let a murderer, who you have witnesses telling you that she is the killer, run free? She would kill again; she’s a danger to society. You don’t know what’ll she’ll do. You aren’t tracking her. From the sounds of it, you aren’t going to track her! You are just letting an activate killer run free and you’re doing nothing!

“And don’t say its all over or something. She went to kill me and my sister. The rest of my family are another target for her. You don’t know what’ll she’ll do. My dad’s defenceless. He can’t defend himself against a god tier like her – he couldn’t be able to defend himself against a fucking mid tier! And she fucking knows where we live! If we do hide somewhere, she’ll find us. She’ll have so many people helping her!

“And are you not even going to bother to look into that she is a part of Ember? Volcan, or whatever you are calling someone. Like, do you know they are female or something? You seem to know on a lot for someone who’s made zero break throughs on a case about a serial killer who is able to kill alert high tiers. That should be your number one priority but its not. It’s like you don’t care.

“You are so incompetent – so stupid – that you’d think they only given officers an hour’s worth of training or less with no test needed to pass. No background check’s or anything. You are the one of the fucking dumbest people I have ever met and yet it seems like you are following fucking stupid orders, you should have thrown in the trash the second you hear them. But you didn’t because you are so goddamn stupid you didn’t pass fucking high school. Or maybe you just can’t fucking bother to do your fucking job properly!”

The door clicked open behind her. A hand grabbed her arm, pulling her backs and dragging her out.

She was thrown out the building like she was at a club and had caused a fight.

Everything was mostly fine that Friday.

That plan was going well. There wasn’t necessarily less bullying (there would never be enough supervisors) but there was less tactless whispers around the corridors. It didn’t mean they were gone, but at least some of the student were beginning to learn some manners.

However, she was bias; she had to admit that.

Currently, she was helping Remi to get some students to the infirmary. They had been splattered against the wall like a spider.

Remi had suggested investigating the bullying incident. She stated that it was almost on a John level off violence and it was only less because it only took a few hints before all the damage had been done and the perpetrator left.

She got the creeping feeling that Remi knew more than her. Like she knew who did it but she wasn’t telling her.

Remi had been here longer, so she knew more of the students. Plus, the perpetrator did appear to be powerful.

Her phone buzzed in her pocket and she pulled it out of her blazer. John had texted her, asking to meet up, and she glanced up to see John on the opposite end of the busy courtyard she was walking through to get to the other side.

She didn’t even bother to reply and instead hastily walked over to where he was staring at his phone.

About a metre away from John (who hadn’t noticed her), she leaped towards him and wrapped her arms around his waist, smiling up at him.

Suddenly, he pushed her off of him and she hit the floor, landing on her bum.

She stared up at him shocked and John stared back at her with the same look.

Okay, he hadn’t seen _her_ when he pushed her off him.

“Hi,” she said, rubbing the back of her head.

“Sorry,” he replied. He offered a hand out to her and she accepted. He pulled her up to standing and clasped her to his body.

“Sorry, I shouldn’t have pushed you,” he whispered in her ear. He brushed down her skirt and hugged her to his chest. She wrapped her arms around his back and buried her head in his chest.

“It’s fine,” she responded, whispering as well. “I shouldn’t have surprised you like that.”

“I still shouldn’t have done,” he answered as he slowly stroked her pale orange hair. “I could have seriously hurt you.”

It wasn’t like he hadn’t done worse. Maybe it was because this was in front of a school ground as heat started flooding to her face. Then she glanced back to his face.

Rising on her toes, she pressed her lips gently against his and he slowly responded.

Maybe she shouldn’t do this in front of so many people, but she didn’t care. John was hot.

She broke away from him, a sliver of saliva connecting their lips. She smiled up at him and he smiled back.

“We should go on a date after school,” he stated, fiddling with a strand of her straight hair. “There’s this really nice café in town. Woaba Boaba. We should go there some time, possibly today.”

She nodded. “That sounds nice. Should we meet up half an hour after school ends?”

“That’s good.”

After checking it out, she could take Isen there. He might have already been there.

A cough resonated behind them. She looked behind her to see Seraphina standing there with a straight face but her hands crossed over her chest.

That straight face must be fake. Her entire aura was anger.

She draped her arms to her sides and turned to face Seraphina. It was her duty as Queen of Wellston to help her. (She assumed that was why she came to her and John.)

“Are you okay?” she asked first because Seraphina didn’t seem okay. Something had obviously upset her.

Seraphina didn’t respond.

She was a very cold person. Intimidating for such a low level low tier, but to be fair, she was relatively muscular. Not a body builder or anything, but clearly she worked out regularly.

“How can I help you?” she questioned after Seraphina didn’t answer here. She took a few steps away from John, so she was about a metre away from him.

“You could answer her!” John shouted behind her. She was starting to get worried about him not saying anything.

“Maybe you shouldn’t interfere,” Seraphina replied, glaring at a spot behind her that must have been John.

What the hell was she planning?

Her light blue eyes started glowing.

“Maeve.” She clicked her tongue as Maeve’s eyes focused on her. “I challenge you for the position of Queen?”

She stared. What the fuck? Why was a low tier challenging her for the position of Queen?

“Look, that article a few weeks ago got my level wrong. My level is 6.5, not 5.1,” she explained. “I’m not an easy target for a low tier that is too full of herself.”  
  


There was an intake of breath behind her.

Before she could blink, Seraphina was gone.

Her body was flung back and pain stabbed out of her stomach. She had been hit, but she didn’t know when or how.

Seraphina was standing where she stood. She must have been the one to hit her. But how?

Her back hit the wall of the school building. Something shattered in her, probably some of her bones.

Her body screamed that it was all her bones, but she wouldn’t be alive if it was.

The pain stabbed through her entire body. She wouldn’t be able to stand to defend herself against her unknown attacker.

She glanced up to see Seraphina running at her again, but she was steadily speeding up to a point that was past humanly possible.

It wasn’t an unknown attacker.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> 3084 words.
> 
> This is posted on Thursday because tomorrows Christmas (well, this is the Christmas special afterall) and I can't verify when I will be able to post it tomorrow, so I think it is safer to post now and know it is posted. 
> 
> I hope you enjoyed this chapter. It's an extra thousand words longer than normal and I feel that it is a turning point in the current plot.
> 
> As a general survey, would you rather I keep to the typical two points covered by chapter in 2000 words, or would you rather I tried to fit in as much as I could plot wise into those 2000 words. Sometimes I feel that it becomes excessively wordy trying to keep to the two points per chapter.
> 
> Thank you for reading the chapter today. Please share your thoughts, opinions and theories in the comments.
> 
> Merry Christmas!


	60. The White Van

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I don't know if this was mentioned at the end of the last chapter, but this a Mary and Rei chapter. I would post twice a week for awhile, so chapter 62 would come out sooner, but I'm not currently writing at a pace that would sustain that.

Mary sat on the park bench, leaning up against the back of the bench, as Rei stood over her.

According to Rei, Misci and everyone else with her now, she still wasn’t well enough to help out.

Not like everyone had come with them.

They were a group of seven now, but it wasn’t that over half of the original group agreed with Blue and Braylon. Some just do not want to leave their friends.

She liked the smaller group too. She was getting to know the people move and her trust was in a safer place. No one was going to make assumptions about her based on a few second interaction and then do immoral things to her based on the assumption that she is a horrible person. People could get to know her better when it was a smaller group. _She_ knew them better.

She knew all their names: Rei, Misci, Ellie, Noe (Equinox), Daisy, Kendric, and, of course, Mary. All of them distrusted Braylon and Blue (Lillian) from either previous experience, or just didn’t see why Misci would lie. Plus, it would be a repeated crime.

They had all agreed that Braylon was self-absorbed and that Blue would run with anything, especially if she thought it was wrong. She would stick to her moral code and force the moral code on others, punishing them if they didn’t follow it even if the punishment didn’t fit the moral code too.

Currently, everyone but Rei and her were trying to find resources. As mentioned before, she was apparently too unwell to help, so Rei would stay with her to make sure her health didn’t drop or the other group found her.

For the other group, she had to say that at least half wanted to say with the main group. At least for the majority of the girls, that was the case. They didn’t want to be the left one out.

She didn’t blame them. There was no evidence except two possibly bias witness account. Only those with the strongest morals for themselves sided with her to the fullest.

“Are you still feeling okay?” Rei asked, going to sit next to her on the bench. “You should be lying down.”

“Yes, I’m feeling fine.” She ignored the queasy feeling in her stomach and how her vision had blurry patches.

“You look pale,” he relied, placing his hand on top of hers. “And you keep swaying.”

“I have to feel better at some point,” she answered.

Then she glanced down to her blue jeans. “Did you ever get back in contact with Kuyo?”

“I did why?” he responded.

“I wonder if he ever got better. Ever became a better person.”

“He kind of did,” he replied before shrugging his shoulders. “I don’t know how to explain it, but he’s now a superhero, so he did change. Well, at least he was a superhero when I died.”

Mary found herself smiling at that. Kuyo wasn’t the kind of person to help others for fame or fortune, especially helping low tiers. He used to think they were a drag in society, so him helping them must mean his thinking had changed to at least a certain degree.

“Why did you ask?”

“I don’t really know,” she started. There was no particular reason why she asked; maybe it was just curiosity. “I guess I wanted to see if anyone at school became a better person. I didn’t keep in touch with anyone when I left Wellston.”

“We had each other’s numbers.”

“Yes, I did. But we didn’t text each. At least, not much by the end.”

“You must have made new friends in university,” he suggested, his gold eyes smiling at her. “I mean, you would keep in contact with people at Wellston anyway.”

“No, I threw myself into my studies,” she answered, glancing away to the tall, dull grass. “I wasn’t that close to others at Wellston anyway.”

“I never got that impression. You could have talked to me if you were having any issues with making friends.”

You always treated me like a child.

“I told you. You just brushed it off.”

“Name an incident of me brushing it off.”

“You got my number from Sam. Sam and I weren’t friends. Sam hated me and I hated Sam. She was probably being spiteful when she gave you my number. I’m fairly certain we talked about that in the first time we texted, but you mostly ignored it.”

Rie nodded, although hesitantly like he didn’t really remember. “Then what about your roommate?”

“I didn’t have a roommate, remember? You came over to my dorm multiple times: multiple times a week.”

“It’s easier to notice that someone is there than their absence.”

“That’s just an excuse you’re making up. You were told multiple times.”

_Mary stood in her bedroom, staring in the mirror._

_Her white bra was a plunge shaped bra. It had a v-shaped ducked down to the edge of the wire of the bra. She found this type of bra more comfortable as the wire didn’t dig in._

_Her knickers were black, lacy on the top as they were some of the most comfortable pairs she owned._

_Obviously, she wasn’t expecting anyone to see her like this, so why did Rei come in without knocking on the door?_

_No one knows, particularly because Rei hasn’t given a reason up to this day._

_At the sound of the door clicking open, she turned to her door and then there was a sudden rush of heat to her face._

_Rei stood in the doorway to her room, blood red in the face with a hand over his eyes._

_“So – Sorry,” he stuttered before closing the door in his face._

_Quickly, she threw on the clothes she had laid out on her bed: a white t-shirt with a rose ink art on the centre of it, a black hoodie, black jeans and black socks._

_She went out of her room to talk to Rei, but she couldn’t get the thought out of head._

Burning hot blood rushed to her face. Why did that memory come to mind when thinking about Rei in her old dorm room?

At least it took place in her door room where Rei should have noticed there was only one bedroom in her dorm.

“What are you thinking about?” Rei asked, staring at her. Which was probably because she was blood red.

  
“Just school.” She glanced away, wondering if her face could get any hotter, especially if Rei did anything else.

“You’re dead now. You don’t have to worry about school anymore. We don’t even have work here,” he explained, stroking one of her fingers.

“I meant Wellston.”

“Oh.” His eyeline glanced to the tall tree that was a few metres away from the bench. Its dark green leaves were dull, like it had a grey overlay over a drawing. “What were you thinking about?”

“Why you didn’t knock,” she replied, not making eye contact with him as she spoke.

“Why are you bringing _that_ up again?”

Rei leaped to the feet over dramatically.

“You managed to do it, multiple times. Like, you did not learn from the first few times.”

“Why is this relevant now though?!” he semi-shouted in response to her. He wasn’t truly angry at her, but clearly annoyed she was bringing it up.

She remembered touching herself multiple times afterwards, but her heart always raced that Rei might walk in on her.

“At least it was several months apart, so I couldn’t say it was on purpose,” she replied, smirking up at him as she suggested a cover story for him. A cover story he should guess that she would not accept.

“Why is this relevant?” he asked yet again.

She got where he was coming from. Her brain could be really random.

She turned to him, pulling her knees up to her chest and wrapped her arms around her knees. “I just thought it was a fun memory>”

“How is me invading your privacy a fun memory?” Rei questioned, raising an eyebrow at her.

  
Her face glowed up with heat again. This was going to happen too much today.

Not looking him in the eye, she asked, “Do you ever think we could be a thing?”

“Not really.” He stared at her with his eyebrows furrowed. “Why do you ask?”

She closed her eyes. Why did she ask that? She couldn’t respond in any non-suspicious way and if she didn’t respond, he would guess what would likely be her answer because not answering would only mean several things.

Shit would get awkward quickly.

“We found a van!”

Her eyes popped open. Daisy couldn’t get any louder?

“And what’s impressive about this van?” Rei questioned, lying his arm on the back of bench, so he could turn to look at the girl with long silver hair.

“The key is in the van and we turned it and the engine started up!” Daisy bounced on her feet and her arms waved about as she explained. “And it didn’t stall!”

“I was able to drive it from where it was to here,” Kendric interjected – apparently just as expected as Daisy at this discovery. He pointed to the road nearby the green square that the bench was located on. It was white, but had mud spray up the sides. The only windows were in the front cab. “We checked out the back and they have a few extra car seats. There is enough space for all of us!”

“Why does this help us?” Rei asked, squinting at the two of them. Confusion, most likely. “I mean, obviously it will be easier to move about, but it doesn’t sound as incredible as you’re acting.”

“We won’t have to run for eternity when the wolves find us,” Daisy explained after taking a deep breath. Although much calmer than before her hands moved with her speech as she explained. “In fact, we won’t truly ever be in the woods as we will always need a road to drive along, so there will be less chance of the wolves finding us.”

“We can also quickly out run the spectres too,” Kendric continued from Daisy. “We’ll have somewhere to sleep every night. We won’t have to worry about sleeping in the woods. I guess we’ll have to go on a rota for driving, but we’ll have seven people so there will be nights off. Plus, there will be space to sleep during the day in the van. And we’ll rarely come across the other group, hopefully.”

“Well, shouldn’t we find Misci, Noe and Ellie, and get everyone’s opinion,” Mary stated, heading to stand up.

Immediately, the world around her went black.

“Fudge!” Rei shouted as Mary toppled forward. Why didn’t he say anything? Like get up slowly, or actually going to help her.

He leaped forward and was able to catch Mary, arm in front of her chest to catch her, before she hit the ground.

Then he turned Mary around so that it was her back lying against his arm. Moving slow, he moved her body, so her head and back rested against his chest to support her weight.

Then he glanced up to Daisy and Kendric who stared at him with wide eyes and open mouths. Like, _Rei used a word instead of a swear word. How could Rei ever think about swearing? How would that be possible?_

“I’ll go into the van and look after Mary whilst you find the rest.” He glanced down to where Mary laid against him. He was on his knees to support her. Mary’s skin was becoming whiter (as white as paper) by the second and there was beads of sweat trickling down her forehead into her hair and the rest of her face. “In fact, if you struggle to find them after twenty minutes, come back and wait with us here. This bench is the meeting point, so they should come back here and then we can tell them.”

Daisy nodded, her mouth downturned, and rushed off. Misci was the best health care person they had and Mary’s condition looked to be worsening to a terrifying state.

Without a word, Kendric ran after her.

Rei leaned over Mary and went to move Mary into his arms. Mary reached a hand up to him and pinched his upper arm. Then she giggled.

“It’s okay, Mary.” As he stood up, he knew Mary was in a drunken like state in her semi-unconsciousness. Or at least it was a sign of affection when she could barely move her body.

Once he stood up, he headed towards the white van. He glanced inside the main cab, which had three seats, he found that not only was the van very high, but they keys were still in the engine.

The van didn’t look like it had a specific owner for awhile if ever in this dead world.

He walked up to the side and stared at the handle to the sliding door. Daisy and Kendric had to have driven here, so no one could be hiding in the back of the van as they would have attacked Daisy and Kendric.

Unless Daisy and Kendric had betrayed them.

He didn’t want to put Mary in danger.

But he had to open the door and when he did, the van was safe.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> 2230 words.
> 
> As I mentioned at the beginning, I'm sorry this isn't continuing on from the cliffhanger last week. That chapter will be up on the 15th of January (I just read a calendar to check that). The Mary chapters are still equally important to the plot and they happen every 8 chapters for a 2 chapter period. 
> 
> The weather keeps saying it supposed to snow where I live until the day and then its not snowing, but its below 0.
> 
> I posted another Butterflies chapter yesterday for New Year's Eve.
> 
> Happy New Year.


	61. The First Death

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Warning: This chapter mentions vomit.  
> I'll put words in bold at the beginning and end for anyone who wants to avoid it.
> 
> I know this is usually used for trigger warnings, but its unexpected and gross (because its vomit). Its not in any great detail.

_Mary curled up against Rei’s chest as he laid his arm over her body._

_His heartbeat steadily beneath her head. He was warm against her, like a radiator. She loved the flutter of her heart as she leant against him._

_“Do you think we could be a thing now?” she whispered softly against him. She turned her head slightly to look up at him. Their eyes met and he smiled down at her._

_The fabric of her underwear clung to her._

_“Yes,” he whispered back. He clutched her arms and slowly rotated her body, so her back rested on the duvet of the bed and he was straddled over her._

_He pressed a kiss to her forehead and then moved his hands to trail down her shoulders and along her arms until he reached her hands where he squeezed one hand before letting go of the hand and used the other one to support his weight by pushing up off the mattress._

_“I love you, Mary.”_

_His hand trailed down her body and along her breast, where his fingers squeezed her nipple. She gasped._

_Her legs wrapped around his hips, which caused her dress down her thighs down to her hips._

_Since when was she wearing a dress?_

_Rei’s lips met hers and her arms reached up to loop around his neck, pulling him closer to her body. The kiss depended as Rei’s body pressed against hers._

_What was she lying against? A bed? A bench? The floor of a cold building?_

_It felt like the floor of a cold building but wasn’t it a bed? Like a soft mattress except it was a thin metal sheet._

_Mary attempted to pull away, but her head hit the metal and couldn’t get away. It was Rei who ended up breaking the kiss, whether he noticed her attempts to or not._

_“I love you, Mary,” he whispered against her lips._

“I love you too, Rei,” Mary mumbled in her sleep.

“I do love you Mary,” Rei responded, running his fingers through her tangled honey gold hair.

He could tell by now that Mary was no longer in danger from her fever. She was no longer sweating nor did she have a temperature anymore.

She was just peacefully dreaming. About him, apparently. And an intimate dream about him too.

He didn’t know what kind of intimate. Dreams could be anything. Dreams could be random. Extremely random.

He leant against the wall of the van with Mary’s head in his lap. Daisy and Kendric hadn’t come back yet, although it had been well over twenty minutes. He assumed that they had walked far enough away whilst looking for the others that it meant it would take longer to walk back than expected. Plus, they might walk a different, possibly longer, way back to cover more ground. At least, that was the reasons he kept coming up with.

“What are you dreaming about?” he asked to the sleeping Mary, not expecting a response. “I know I’m there; you have said my name.”

“Rei,” Mary moaned, her body shivering in the cold of the van with the open door.

He wondered if this world had seasons. It was a suspension of death – or the suspension between life and death – but same parts did work like life. It would and wouldn’t make sense for there to be seasons at the same time.

He was slightly concerned about Mary’s dream. He thought Mary was beautiful, hot even, but he didn’t want to tell her that because he knew she liked him back. He was a role model to Mary. He assumed he had too much power over her to have a healthy consensual relationship. At least that was the case when they were both in high school at Wellston.

It had been years since Rei and Mary had talked before their deaths. Was that relationship of Rei being her mentor still there? Was it ever there as they had positions of an equal standing?

He glanced back down to Mary. He placed his hand against her forehead but there was still no temperature.

“Rei?” Mary asked in a much more certain voice than her previous comments from her fevered dreams. “What are you doing?”

His heart stopped for a split second as he realised his eyes had been trained back on the wall of the van. He looked down to where Mary’s bleary gold eyes stared up at him.

“You had temperature earlier and you shivered half a minute ago.” He pulled his shirt down as heat burned his face. “I was making sure your temperature hadn’t come back.”

Mary nodded and then placed her hand over her body to turn herself around to face him. Her movements were slow and shaky, knowing what had happened last time, and she pulled herself up to sit next to him, smiling up at him at her achievement.

**Then** her face went pale.

“Wait!” Mary cried before turning away from him, trying to pull her hair out of her face. Rei reached around and pulled more of her hair out of her face.

Mary vomited.

Rei waited until Mary seemed to have stopped and then thought out what to do next. He needed to clean the sick up, but he needed to make sure Mary was okay.

“I’m sorry,” Mary whispered.

“You shouldn’t be sorry,” Rei replied, glancing to the door of the van. “It isn’t your fault.

“You should go lie down on the other side of the van,” he continued, wrapping his arms around her chest to support her. “I’ll go clean it up.”

“You don’t have to. It’s my mess, so I can clean it up,” she stated.

“You’re not well enough too,” Rei responded, helping Mary move to the other side of the van. Mary pushed with her legs and Rei carried the rest of her weight. Once Mary was at the other side of the van, he went and opened the sliding door. “I’ll see if any of the nearby shops have cleaning materials. **Scream if you need my help.”**

Mary was sat up against the wall of the van with Rei next to her. The van door was open to air out the van, although Rei had brought out an air spray from a shop in case it got bad.

She was leaning against Rei’s shoulder for support whilst they waited for the rest to turn up.

According to Rei, Daisy and Kendric were taking a while. They should have been back awhile ago and they were taking a disturbingly long time, but she didn’t know how much because she was out for at least half an hour.

They couldn’t get out to look for them as they would lose the van plus Mary’s current condition. Rei had stated earlier that she would need constant supervision.

Then she spotted a silver blob in the distance from across the green square. It was in one of the streets that opened up on to the square.

She couldn’t see the silver blob in great detail (faraway and a pounding headache), but it was definitely heading towards them, running towards them, which meant it wasn’t a spectre. However, the green had many trees that blocked her view of the silver blob as it ducked in and out of behind the trees.

Then other colourful blobs appeared behind them. It was people. People were running at them.

Who were they? The other group? Were they coming to join them or fight them? What were they planning? What were their intentions?

It was Daisy with the others running behind her, unable to keep up.

Rei pulled her up and sat her in the seat of the van that was next to where they had been sitting previously.

“You know, I can move to the seat myself,” she stated, crossing her arms over her chest and huffing.

“Last time you stood up, you passed out,” he replied. He walked up to the door entrance and offered a hand out to Daisy. Daisy accepted it and was hauled into the van.

“We’ve spotted the spectre,” Daisy announced, flashing her eyes around the van. “They’re not here yet, but we should get going as soon as we can.”

Rei nodded as he offered his hand out to Misci then Ellie. Kendric was able to push himself up into than without help.

“Who knows how to drive?” Misci asked once she had pulled the door closed and turned around to face them. “I can, but we should account for all those who can so we don’t have tired drivers?”

“I can’t,” Mary immediately stated before anyone else. “Plus, I’m passing out randomly currently.”

“Okay.” Rei nodded. “I can drive, but I’ve only driven small cars.”

“I can’t drive,” Daisy continued. “I had epilepsy when I was alive and never got any lessons because of that.”

“I can drive,” Kendric answered. “I’ve driven a van before. A moving van.”

“I can also drive,” Ellie replied, fiddling with a strand of her lilac hair. “My parents wanted ,e to drive as soon as I came of age.”

“Okay.” Misci took a deep breath and took a step back. “I’ll drive you.”

Her body went translucent (which made Mary’s brain fuzzy) and she stepped back through the seat.

So that was Misci’s ability. Or at least part of her ability.

Daisy and Kendric walked to the back of the van, outside of Mary’s eyeline, and started giggling from the back.

“Hey, Misci. Wait a second.” Ellie waked to the door, grabbing the handle and sliding it open. “I’m going to join you in the front.”

She jumped out and closed the door behind her with a bang.

Rei sat down next to her. She was the one against the wall, which had a window, to look out of and she leant her head against the glass.

Ellie jumped into the passenger seat in the cab.

Misci started up the van and it roared to life.

White spots covered his vision as the van pulled forward. As the van continued to drive along the road, Mary found herself skipping minutes.

Rei was trying to talk to her, but she was missing words, sentences. Possibly entire paragraphs.

At some point, Rei stopped talking to her and instead clutched her head that now rested on his thigh. Occasionally, he squeezed her hand and it would bring her back to consciousness.

She didn’t truly remember anything until there was a short shriek and the van halted to the stop.

Mary’s eyes blinked open and she stared up out of the big window at the front of the widnow.

There was a giant wolf of dark purple fur. White specs decorated her fur along with black spots, small spots, at the end.

She swore it was bigger than the one from before. Maybe the other one was a pup, or a naturally smaller wolf, or even this one could be bigger than the norm.

“Fuck!” Misci shouted, staring up agape at the giant wolf that laid across the dirt road.

The wolf raised her head up and looked at them.

Maybe it was friendly. Her heart thumped. If it was friendly, it wouldn’t hurt them and maybe they can get through.

She didn’t want to be stepped on to death.

Footsteps raced along the metal floor and Mary glanced to her side as Daisy forced the door open and leaped out. Immediately as her feet landed on the ground, she ran up to the wolf.

Who barred her teeth at them.

Green sparks blasted out through the air and then green shots spouted out of the green specs.

The vines curled before straightening out into sharp columns all targeted at the wolf.

Mary stood to her feet, staring at Daisy and the wolf. There was not a spot of dizziness, but still Rei placed a hand on her shoulder.

As the vines went in on their target, the wolf snapped at Daisy. The vines vanished in a green dust as Daisy jumped back before she jumped forward again, the green vines forming again.

The wolf snapped her jaw at her again but didn’t reach. Daisy didn’t flinch again. Then the wolf raised up onto their legs, reaching it jaws forward. Her jaw snapped at Daisy’s legs and her leg vanished.

Her body broke up into silver dust.

Daisy was dead.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> 2068 words.
> 
> The first death. Get ready for more deaths. Though, they might be awhile from now in the storyline.
> 
> I've checked this chapter for grammar mistakes, although I might have missed a few. I'm bad at picking up mistakes in my own work. I know what I meant, so I correct it in my brain without noticing (at least I think I do that).
> 
> We're back to John next week. I'm assuming that's been long awaited, especially with the cliffhanger at the end of chapter 59. At least with Mary there's less conflict of who's in the wrong or right.
> 
> I might stop reading unOrdinary for awhile (around 10 weeks). One of my main reasons I'm not reading is that I'm a fastpasser for unOrdinary only and I decided to spend 25 coins (5 episodes) on the Croaking. I try to be a bit careful with my coins and only spend them on unOrdinary fastpass episodes. Also I spent 10 coins on Lore of Olympus back when they found Persephone, so I added that to the weeks I need to miss to make it up. The extra three weeks come from the fact that they're three fastpass episodes up.
> 
> I should still be posting Golden Child chapters. I'm at a point in the story where I'm not relying much on what's currently happening in unOrdinary, so it should be okay. If I do go on hiatus or an irregular posting schedule, that's because I've ran out of chapters and it's taking over a week to write one chapter. I hope that doesn't happen.
> 
> Thank you for reading this chapter. Please share your thoughts in the comments.


	62. Realisation

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Warning: Reference to physical abuse. 
> 
> Entirety of first scene.

John was frozen in place.

Maeve laid against the wall, not moving, except for shift in her weight from the punches thrown at her.

He couldn’t see the frenzy of punches that Seraphina hit Maeve’s body with but he knew her ability was activated, even if he had his eyes closed.

Maeve wasn’t even fighting back and what had she ever done to Seraphina? Maeve was innocent.

She wasn’t fighting back. She wasn’t even attempting to fight back. She didn’t put up a fight; she was defeated by the first blow.

Seraphina didn’t need to go this far. She was going too far.

He needed to step in. She wasn’t going to stop until a point, which was probably when she ran out of energy.

Maeve’s injuries were already severe. She must have several broken ribs She was going to how to spend days upon days in hospital.

“Stop!” he yelled out, overcoming his frozen state. He threw his hand out, btu stayed where he was standing. “You’re going too far.”

“Look at yourself!” Seraphina shouted back. She paused for a second to look at him. She squinted her eyes, giving him a look, before turning back and throwing another punch at Maeve’s body.

What the fuck? What did she fucking mean? Look at himself? What the hell was that suppose to mean?

“You’re the one attacking her!” he continued. Although his voice was still loud, he didn’t shout. He took a few steps forward, but he wasn’t close enough to interfere. “My appearance doesn’t change the fact that you’ve already beaten Maeve. You don’t need to continue.”

“I meant look at your own fucking past actions!” She glanced at him again – frowning, annoyed.

She turned back to Maeve and the next increased speed punch went to Maeve’s upper chest. It caused an audible crack.

Then Seraphina stood up, partially turned towards John but still angled towards Maeve as well. Her clothes were spluttered with splotches of blood, one shoulder of her blazer slipping down her arm.

“You probably want to get her to the infirmary,” Seraphina stated. Ice blud eyes met gold before she started walking away across the courtyard. “I’m going to change into cleaner clothes.”

He stared agape as she calmly walked out of the courtyard with her head held high.

He rushed over to Maeve’s body. As he knelt by her body, he clasped her hand, squeezing it to let her know he was there.

Blood was all over her body. There was blood dripping out of her mouth, blood soaking through her white blouse, and there were bruises on her neck and supposedly the rest of her body.

He shouldn’t (couldn’t) move her. It could make her injuries worse.

He pulled his phone out and scrolled through his phone’s contacts until he found Doc’s number.

“Hello,” Doc called down the phoneline after the phone had rung twice. “John, why are you calling me?”

“Maeve’s gravely injured,” he replied, sniffling slightly. “We’re on the school grounds. I’m scared to move her now but she needs help.”

“Where is she on the school grounds?” Doc asked, remaining calm. “Is she conscious?”

“We’re in the East Courtyard. She is not unconscious.”

“I’ll come. Keene’s with me, so he will also come.”

Doc hung up.

John slipped his phone back into his pocket.

Why would Seraphina do this? Why would she go this far to dethrone Maeve?

Maeve didn’t even fight back. What he did to Blyke and Remi was not the same because Blyke and Remi fought back. Even if they didn’t have the true strength, they stood back up. How could he take the chance that they had more strength than they looked to?

Would Maeve be okay? She was so heavily beaten. There were so many injuries. So many countless injuries.

He hit her yesterday. Why did he hit her? He could not even remember. It was something about the safehouse, but it didn’t truly matter, did it?

He had hurt her. He had hurt the person he loved for petty reasons. For the fact that they disagreed on something. Like people. They had disagreed like regular people.

He pulled out his phone and selected his camera roll. The first photo up was a photo of Maeve yesterday caught off guard. The covered side of her face was hidden by her hand to hide the forming bruise.

He did that. He hit her. He wasn’t the victim; she was the victim. He was the villain. Was he a monster?

What was he ever the victim for (of recent)? Maeve disagreeing with him? Seraphina’s righteous anger at him for lying about his life to her? Remi not doing what he wanted? Blyke trying to become a better person? Elaine putting pieces together?

Arlo trying to kill him? And then apologising for offending him?

He was the victim to Arlo, but nothing was black and white. He didn’t have to tell Seraphina everything or anything, but Seraphina was right to be angry at him for lying to her so much (almost everything) – especially when she confronted him about it before but he lied again.

Remi did nothing wrong. All she did was try to stop a petty war – a stupid fight.

It wasn’t petty though. He was right. He just went about it the wrong way. He should have gone straight to Arlo – no mask. It would have caused a lot less havoc. There would be no fake Jokers.

(Was that really the case though?)

However, he didn’t know if not wearing a mask would have the same effect.

Arlo was the fucking worst. He kept repeating his mistakes; he did not care about the consequences of his actions on others. His apologies were only done because there was backlash.

(Hypocritical though?)

Maeve wasn’t. He loved Maeve and he had hit her. He had hit her over and over again. For basically nothing. Nothing that mattered. Nothing that mattered to that extent to hit the one person he cared about in this school. Nothing that mattered in the big picture.

Claire was right. He was a monster.

Like Arlo, he kept repeating his actions (at least he did not do a phoney apology). He learnt from his actions then he unlearnt it.

He had hit Claire too. And Adrion. Why did he expect Claire to ask him out that day after everything he had done?

Although he held the blame for what he had done, Claire wasn’t entirely innocent. She had some – probably well deep rooted – issue with late bloomers or high tiers ( he couldn’t tell which one as she never addressed it). He was fairly certain that by standing up for someone who was ultimately in the wrong (at least in his and his sisters’ eyes) was what made him lash out at her.

(Was that really the case? Could he just not live with the truth?)

He shouldn’t blame her. She was the victim, although his mind did not want believe it.

She was a bitch though.

Maeve had never done that. She had never done anything of the sorts.

He had hit her. He had hurt her. And she didn’t deserve it.

He deserved to be left for Isen after what he had done to her. Isen would treat her better.

Now Maeve was lying bloodied against a wall in front of him. She didn’t deserve that either. He could do better. He would do better.

He wanted to do better. He swore to himself to do better, no matter the price.

(As if a monster like him could ever keep a promise.)

Everything flew around him. He didn’t hear as the footsteps pattered away (afraid or because the bell to end break rang). He didn’t see the bodies of students walking to their next class – just a blur of colours.

And then, soon enough, Doc and Keene arrived and the ambulance was called soon after.

The receptionist called Seraphina in after she had sat on the chairs for several minutes.

She stood up and walked to the door with the silver plaque that read ‘Headmaster Vaughn’. After a knock on the wooden door, she was called in.

“Hello Seraphina,” Vaughn greeted, gesturing with his open palm to the chair on the other side of the desk to him.

She took the seat, hands stiffly in her lap.

“Do you know why you have been called here?” he asked, pushing his glasses back up his nose.

“It is about my ability?” she responded. Her heart raced in her chest as oil flowed through her veins. “As it is back.”

“No,” he replied, gazing at her over the top of his glasses frames. “Although, I guess it involves your ability in a way.”

She stared at her hands in her lap.

“This is about what you did to Maeve.”

Maeve? She had only hospitalised her. Maeve’s passive was healing, so it wouldn’t have any permeant affect on her. She would just be able to heal it plus the hospital in Wellston was really good. They would be able to heal anything, especially if the client pays. And Maeve’s family could and would pay. She was a god tier after all.

“What about it?” Seraphina questioned after Vaughn continued to stare at her with his bright green eyes behind his glasses for several minutes and they soaked in the silence.

“Do you understand what you did?” he prompted, clasping his hands together.

“I dethroned Maeve,” she replied. What did he mean? She hadn’t done anything wrong. Everything was legal – in the school rules at least. And usually in the law too in a fucked up way.

“You hospitalised her!” He slammed his hand down on the table.

She jumped back in her chair.

“What is wrong with hospitalising her?” she asked, tilting her head in question.

Her heart thumped. Loud. Ringing in her ears.

“She won’t be out of hospital for at least the next week, if not two,” he explained.

“Isn’t that expected?” she questioned. “Remi and Blyke were hospitalised for several days.”

“For several days, not several weeks,” he responded, frowning at her.

“But it was the same thing that happened to them,” she responded. She clasped her hands into fists in her lap. “How was I supposed to know that she would be that badly injured from a few punches?”

“You are the one in control of the punches you draw. And you drew more than a few,” he explained. “You know the power that you hit her with and if you didn’t, you saw the affect those blows have. You would have known after the first few.

“You have showed no sympathy when you stopped, according to witnesses. There is no reason to show that you didn’t know the extent of her injuries due to your actions.”

“Did John get called her when he beat up the Royals?” she questioned. “He didn’t get punished for it.”

“Yes, he did,” Vaughn responded. “But Maeve did not even fight back against you, unlike Remi, Arlo, Blyke and Isen did against John.”

“How was I supposed to know she wouldn’t fight back?” she questioned.

“She was only semi-conscious after the first punch. That was how you were supposed to know.”

“Well, I won’t do it again,” she replied, staring down at where the toes of her shoes touched the floor.

Vaughn nodded eyes down. Relief rushed through her veins. She didn’t understand why.

  
She was dismissed. No punishment ; no nothing.

She probably wasn’t punished because she brought up that John wasn’t punished for similar actions. It would backfire if she was punished and John wasn’t, if it got out. Her parents likely had more money than John’s, though she didn’t know John’s mom well. Her parents definitely had the bigger, more impactful, reputation.

Maybe the almost panic attack she had in there was punishment enough, but it wasn’t like capital punishment stopped or reduced the amount of murders that happened.

If everyone was let off no one would learn. She should have had at least a detention or something, but what did she expect from the same person who let John off? The school was corrupt.

She laid down on her bed, staring up at the ceiling.

Was what she did really worse than John? It was true, she saw it, that Remi and Blyke did not stand down with those horrible injured, which meant they gathered more injuries and that was why they ended up in hospital but John…

Apparently, Seraphina gave Maeve worse injuries. Maeve would be in the hospital for at least a week, if not more, whilst Remi and Blyke had been in hospital for a few days.

She had broken several of Maeve’s ribs and they had started healing back wrong due to her enhanced healing. She had knocked Maeve unconscious within the first few hits. She fractured her skull; she broke both her legs.

And she hadn’t stopped until John called her out. _John_ called her out.

Maeve didn’t provoke her. Arlo provoked John and the others stood up for Arlo.

However, Maeve was an ass. She wasn’t deserving of John’s affection. She only got John’s attention because she dressed provocatively.

Seraphina didn’t deserve John’s affection. She always acted aggressively towards him once she found out. She didn’t question why he lied; she just believed Arlo. Fucking Arlo. It wasn’t like John was in a position to scam any of them.

Why would his lies hurt her? They were almost harmless. (Well, they weren’t.) It wasn’t like she was any better than Maeve in actions. Maybe she was; maybe she wasn’t. Why did she even care at this point? Why did she still care about him?

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> 2288 words.
> 
> The picture above is a drawing I did of Maeve. It is scaled down as I dislike it when pictures cause the framework of the chapter to be weird on ao3. It's on my Instagram and twitter. I'll reply with what either is if asked.
> 
> The drawing isn't necessarily the three hair tie one I described her when he lilac hair was first introduced (and possibly used a few times since then). That was the first thing I aimed to draw, but it just ended up being a regular ponytail. 
> 
> So, it continues. I do want to mention that at least in the first draft that some of the character's (John and Seraphina's) thoughts weren't necessary right to be thinking, but I think I mostly corrected them now so it's more obvious that it's the characters thoughts and those thoughts aren't necessarily right without needing to add an explanation at the end. (Still, I am here writing an explanation.)
> 
> I do hope you enjoyed this chapter and what feels like the biggest development in the plot for a few chapters. (I just felt like nothing was happening over the course of some chapters in about the last 20 and I really like that the plot is clearly moving now). 
> 
> Thank you for reading. Please share your thoughts about the chapter in the comments.


	63. Visitors

“Did you hear? We have a new Queen.”

Remi walked along the corridor of the school at the end of the school day. She had a bag was slung over her shoulder, containing the book she had used that day. She was heading out of the building, although she was currently only on the second floor.

“I did, but I didn’t get what they mean. Like, who could defeat Maeve and also dethrone her?”

She glanced at the two students chatting. It was a guy and a girl.

The guy was a second year with light blue hair and his thin hair fell like a bucket around his head with it cut slightly shorter by his face so it didn’t block his vision. The cut of his fringe made it like a balcony and revealed his navy blue eyes.

She thought she had talked to him before but she didn’t know him. Somehow, however, she knew he was a mid tier at an average level for a second year. She had probably talked to him for a questionnaire about the Safehouse.

The girl had dark red hair that was twisted around in two bunches that travelled down her shoulders and over her collarbone to end around her chest. The hair was held by two black bands.

She had dark skin with a black beauty mark on her cheek bones. Her eyes were a glowing gold, which made Remi jump when she first realised they were glowing.

She didn’t recognise the girl. She might have been new; she might have just never paid attention to her before. It had turned out she didn’t pay attention to a lot.

The boy started the conversation and the girl had answered.

How could Maeve be dethroned? Who could dethrone her? Maeve was the strongest girl in the school and the second strongest student in the entire school.

There was a reason she was Queen. She had wanted to be Queen, so she took it. Otherwise, she would have tried for Jack.

Remi did miss being a Royal. She could do much more to change the school when she was Jack or Queen. The Safehouse would be less at threat from John trying to close it down if she was Queen or Jack.

Her heart stopped.

Seraphina had her ability back. Maeve was no longer the strongest girl in the year let alone the strongest girl in the school. She _could_ have been dethroned.

Wellston was bad with rumours. People looked up to high tiers like they were celebrities, so would spread rumours for fun because they think high tiers are above human. That they don’t have human emotions.

Remi needed to talk to Maeve about it. She could not just trust the rumours floating about the school.

Maybe someone had made the assumption that Maeve had been dethroned because they had visible bruises on her body and had put it together with the increasingly frequent attacks that fit the description of Seraphina’s ability.

Seraphina hadn’t shown an interest in the role of Queen for over a year at this point, so why would she feel the need to dethrone Maeve?

It was probably John. What she had seen last night made her sick to her stomach. How could John hit Maeve like that? Why was she still with him?

Was that the first time?

Maeve would be the only one who knew the truth. She needed to get her away from there.

“I heard it was Seraphina. Apparently, Maeve was down in one hit, but Seraphina kept hitting her and caused further injuries. She didn’t stop until John yelled at her to and Maeve ended up going to hospital.”

“It doesn’t surprise me that she would be defeated by Seraphina. That article that Isen wrote put her at a 5.2 and isn’t Seraphina an 8. She stood no chance.”

“But didn’t she defeat Remi? And isn’t Remi like a 5.4?”

“That was probably a fluke on Remi’s part. She was likely stressed from what Joker did to her.”

“John, you mean. But Maeve also overpowered Arlo and Arlo is a god tier, so shouldn’t Maeve be a god tier as well?”

That sounded bad and those rumours were detailed. Not that she hadn’t heard detailed rumours that would turn out to be fake before, but false rumours tended to be vague.

She needed to find Maeve, but if Maeve was in hospital, she wouldn’t be able to find her. However, it wasn’t helpless as she could as a teacher.

Continuing to walk, Remi kept her head down even when she should be looking out for people (such as Isen).

“Remi,” Isen called out. She glanced up and met Isen’s amber eyes from further down the corridor.

He waved to her and she smiled.

She had not been smiling before.

  
“Hi, Isen.” She redirected her course to walk up to where Isen was standing next to his locker.

“Have you heard what happened?” he asked. His smile was lopsided. Untrue.

“Well, there is multiple things it could be,” she replied, moving to lean up against the lockers next to Isen’s. “So I’m not sure I do know.”

Isen glanced to her. “Have you heard the rumours that Maeve has been dethroned?”

“Yes,” she answered, glancing down to the smooth light grey walls. “I’m not sure to believe it or not.”

“They’re true. Maeve texted me.” Isens’ eyes fell to where his bag rested up against the royal blue locker doors. The backpack was open at the zip to fit his books and folders in. “We initially planned to meet up tonight for our English project.”

“Is she allowed to have visitors?” she asked. If Maeve had been in contact with Isen, he was most likely to know the most as she hadn’t texted her: her own roommate. “I want to see her check up on her.”

She clasped her finger

Hopefully, Maeve hadn’t told John anything.

“Yes, though visiting hours end at six,” he replied, picking his bag up and rested it on the lockers to zip it up before locking the door. “Her parents might come in, so we can’t visit her but that might not happen so we would be able to visit her. We would have to ask the receptionist at the hospital to know.”

“Did she tell John this?” Remi questioned. Maeve must not, but John was her boyfriend. Apparently, he cared about her.

“Why would she tell me that?” Isen responded. He had a point. Other than the flirting that had happened a week earlier. Isen and Maeve weren’t that close. She had only contacted him because of the school project.

“I wouldn’t be surprised if she did. He was the one who saved her from worse injuries than she got.”

She stared at her feet. She did not understand John. Why would John hit Maeve and then suddenly care when someone else was the one to hit her? Was Maeve supposed to be his own personal punching bag or something?

“We should try to see her after we put our books in our dorms.”

Pain. Pain was all Maeve knew.

She could feel her arms and how they ached. But they weren’t even broken, unlike her fucking collarbone that had numbed under medication.

The doctors had set her ribs back in place. They would heal correctly now.

She still felt it from the pain as her passive healed them back wrong.

“Hey.” Maeve moved her head to glance up to where Isen poked his head around the side of the door. “We brought flowers for you.”

“We?” she questioned.

Isen opened the door further to reveal Remi standing behind him – on her tiptoes trying to look over Isen’s shoulder and not succeeding.

Then Isen walked over and placed the purple tulips on the bedstand.

“How are you?” Remi asked. She had walked to the other side of the hospital bed to Isen.

“I’m definitely fine,” Maeve replied, sarcasm soaking through the cloth. “Like, I can currently use my back.”

“You can’t use your back?” Remi questioned.

“My ribs are broken. They’ll heal better if I don’t move,” she explained.

“Who did this to you?” Remi questioned. Should it be impossible that she hadn’t heard by now?

  
“Seraphina dethroned me,” she answered, glancing to the white sheets of the bed. “It turned out she was a god tier.”

“Did you not know she was a high tier before today?” Isen asked, a laughter to his voice. “What did you even think?”

“I thought she was a low tier,” she replied. “How was I supposed she was a high tier?”

“She lost her ability about a month ago and only got it back just this weekend,” Remi explained, leaning against the side of her bed. “I assume that is what you got confused about. I doubt she ever told you that specifically.”

Maeve nodded. That did explain why she thought Seraphina was a low tier. She had been a low tier, but she was truly a god tier. A god tier that was stronger than Maeve herself.

The kind of god tier that there was about only three hundred in the entire country.

“But nothing else happened, did it?” Remi prodded.

“What do you mean?” Maeve asked. Why would it not just be Seraphina? That made the most sense especially as Seraphina didn’t seem to want to work with others and plus dethroning didn’t work when you dethroned the person with a group. She wouldn’t considered herself dethroned if someone rallied a bunch of people up to dethrone her and they ended up defeating her. That was just pure cheating.

“Like, none of it is from…” Remi hesitated, her bright red eyes flicking up from where she had been gazing. “You know…”

“No,” she firmly stated.

Why the fuck did Remi bring that up in front of Isen?!

“Just tell me if you are ever in trouble,” Remi responded. One arm of hers held the other.

“I’m not going to be in trouble,” Maeve replied, glaring at Remi. When would she learn to shut up? When a conversation clearly wasn’t wanted?

She would talk to Remi if they were alone in their dorm room and where quite.

“You cannot blame me for not being confident in that,” Remi explained.

Nervously, Maeve glanced to Isen. His own amber eyes were flicking between Remi and Maeve like ‘what the hell are you two talking about?’

She didn’t blame him. The topic was disturbing, but he didn’t know the topic so it was perfectly fine for him. She didn’t want him to find out.

“Anyway.” Isen nervously glanced to the side, clutching his hands together. “We really need to find a topic for our English project.”

“The English project?” Remi questioned.

“Yes,” Isen replied dryly.

“How is your project going?” Maeve asked Remi in an attempt to postpone Isen’s questions.

“I’m still trying to get Seraphina to tell me more of what she is planning,” Remi explained. “It’s difficult to get her to talk to me about it. It’s like we’re second years again.”

Maeve had no idea what she meant.

“I hope it goes well,” Isen told Remi before turning his attention back to Maeve. He glared, signalling to her to stop stalling. “Maeve and I have got to pick a theme.”

“Well, I hope it goes well,” Remi reseponded.

“Yes, it would go well if Maeve would make a decision about it,” Isen continued.

“We had one conversation,” Maeve hissed back. “And you kicked me out of your room before we could properly discuss it.”

“You know why you were kicked out of my room,” Isen replied. “Anyway, stop dodging the question. Do you think we should do my idea for the project?”

“I prefer my idea,” Maeve answered, glaring at Isen. Why wouldn’t he get the idea that she was uncomfortable with his idea? However, it wasn’t like she wanted him to know why she was uncomfortable with the idea, so maybe she was displaying her emotions correctly.

“Maybe I could help you make your decision,” Remi interjected, offering her hand up. Somehow Remi was a mind reader. She knew they would never agree.

“An outside opinion,” she explained. “So, it would also expand the feedback so far on the project.”

“Yes,” Isen replied. “Which do you prefer? A plot revolving around someone escaping an abusive relationship or a home invasion.”

Immediately, Remi got a look in her eye. She knew why Maeve didn’t like Isen’s idea but she was going to push her to do it anyway.

“I prefer the idea about the abusive relationship,” Remi responded, smirking towards Maeve. This got a raised eyebrow from Isen. “I think it has more expansion on the theme possible.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> 2127 words.
> 
> I noticed whilst reading through this chapter that it didn't have the same excitement as the last one, but the plot is still moving forward. (Isen and Maeve plot.)
> 
> Also the photo that I uploaded with last week's chapter didn't show up on at least the mobile version of ao3, if not the entirety of ao3. I can't figure out how to fix it, so if you want to see it, I have mentioned my twitter name in a response to a comment asking. I'll also do the same with my Instagram if anyone asks. The picture in question is currently my profile pic (of the date 22nd January 2021) and is the only purple haired character drawn currently. 
> 
> This chapter was also initially named 'Remi' oddly enough, but I changed it to 'Visitors' because typically I try to reserve chapter's with characters' names to big plot chapters where something big happens to either the character or character development. I think this is only seen with 'Elsie' and 'Juno' so far. 
> 
> Also, I have posted comments about this updating on the 'fanfic Friday' post on r/unOrdinary the past two weeks. I don't plan to make that a common occurance.
> 
> I have also not mentioned a warning at the beginning of this chapter although it mentions physical abuse. I think I will likely only put the warnings on chapters that contain actual abuse and torture. If you are a reader and want me to say when a chapter will mention physical abuse, please tell me. 
> 
> I love reading the comments, so if you have any thoughts on the chapters you would like to share, please do.
> 
> Thank you for reading.


	64. Her Boyfriend

Maeve was now able to sit up in the hospital bed and she loved it. It was hell to not be able to move anything but her head and neck. It had been humiliating, especially when Remi and Isen came over. She would have loved to be able to communicate with her upper body and hands.

Also, her being able sit up now meant she was healing. She hated the overly clean smell of the hospital. It was uncomfortable. Unhomely.

She wouldn’t be in the hospital forever. She was healing, so would be free to be out of here – to run in the fresh air.

But her own passive was the reason she was here. She was only here because of her own strength.

However, she was shocked about Seraphina. Or more the fact that she convinced herself that Seraphina was still a low tier when Seraphina stated she was a high tier.

Why did she not believe Seraphina? It was fucking stupid. Seraphina did not have to be open with the fact that she was a high tier and the fact that she didn’t know before Seraphina told her should not have detracted from what she told her.

One reason she didn’t believe Seraphina was because the fact that she didn’t act like a regular high tier. Her friends were low tiers (which now made sense with the information that she lost her ability for a little bit) but she shouldn’t have judged who was a high tier off stereotypes. John and even herself were not typically high tiers. Heck, even Remi wasn’t a typical high tier.

The other reason was that Seraphina’s threat made her scared. She didn’t want to believe she could be defeated so easily by someone she thought was a low tier minutes before, so she convinced herself that Seraphina was lying.

It was terrifying to know that you would do that to yourself.

“Maeve.” She glanced up to where John stood over head. Since when was he there? “Are you okay?”

“Ah, I’m just bummed that I got defeated,” she replied, glancing down to where her hand clutched the white sheet of the duvet. “Particularly by someone who warned me they were a high tier but I refused to believe it. Now I’m dethroned. I was barely Queen for even a week.”

“Hey,” John started. He reached out to her with a hand and fiddled with a strand of her lilac hair. “It’s okay. I should have warned you about Seraphina, especially as she holds a grudge against you.”

“How would you know she holds a grudge against me?” Maeve asked. “I didn’t know she held a grudge against me.”

“She insulted you in front of me, just throwing full on hate at you,” John explained, hand in his pocket. “I swear she did it in front of you too.”

“Well.” She stared at John, gulping. “I- I don’t particularly care.”

“You sound to care,” he replied, leaning against the side of the bed. “And I’m sorry about hitting you in the park.”

He clutched one arm at the elbow.

She didn’t understand why he was sorry.

“You are not accepting that apology, are you?” John asked, frowning in disappointment.

She shook her head. Quickly. Trying to avoid his negative attention.

“I got you a necklace.” He put his hand in his pocket and pulled out a small black box. He offered it out to her on his hand. “I hope you like it.”

She took it from him and clutched it in her hand. Her heart thumped. She pushed up the clasp to open it and the lid rose. Inside laid a silver in colour necklace on the black velvet that lined the box. It had a charm on the chain of a silver metal heart with a small crystal in a circle at the centre.

“It’s beautiful,” she told him, scoring at the necklace. To look at it further, she hooked part of the chain around her finger and lifted it up. “Unfortunately, I can’t wear it in hospital.”

“But you won’t be in hospital forever,” he responded, nervously fiddling with his fingers whilst having a small smile on his face. “You can wear it when you’re out.”

Why was John doing this? Didn’t she disobey him only a few days ago? Was he trying to manipulate her?

“Are you not happy with it?” John asked. Why couldn’t she keep on her poker face?

“No, you just surprised me,” she lied. It was a pretty necklace; it wasn’t about the necklace.

“Do you still have a problem with what happened?” he questioned, staring at her.

No. Why were they at this point again? Why did he keep bringing it up? Was he expecting one specific answer? Would he hit her if she answered wrong?

“Hello Maeve.”

Her heart jumped and suddenly, she glanced up from where she was staring at the box in her hands to the door where her dad had just entered.

“Hi, dad,” she responded, brightly smiling.

She looked to John. He didn’t look like a deer in headlights, but he was shocked still.

Maybe he wasn’t trying to trick her.

“Who is this?” her dad asked. He glanced over to John, hesitant. How much had he heard?

“This is my boyfriend, John,” Maeve explained, gesturing to John. Her dad steadily nodded. How much had he heard? He acted like he had heard something.

“Well, it’s nice to meet you John.” Her dad offered his hand out to John, who accepted it. “I’m Anders, Maeve’s dad.”

“I’m John,” John responded before turning blood red once he realised that he knew that already.

No one stated anything else. They just stood in silence.

“How’s your injuries healing?” her dad asked.

“They’re healing well,” she replied. “I’m able to sit up now. I should be able to return to school in about a week.”

“That’s an entire week off school. A school that I’m paying for.”

“It’s not my fault I got dethroned,” Maeve responded.

“I have a meeting with the Jack – well, soon to be ex-Jack I guess,” John stated, walking out the room in a swift exit. He was going to miss the further awkwardness about to burst out.

“You could have played it safer,” he explained, starting to pace up and down at the foot of her bed. “I met you only a few weeks ago and now I’m paying not only for your school but you’re hospital bill.

“You know how your mother is. How do I know this is not to scam me out of my money?” he questioned.

“How can my mother fake me going to a high end school and being in hospital when you have been to both to see me?” she asked back.

He rolled his eyes. “What is going on between you and that John boy anyway? I can see that he has brought you a necklace,” he stated.

“It’s nothing,” she responded. She had never seen this side of him before. “Can’t you buy necklaces for people you are dating?”

“With your history, it is suspicious,” he replied. She raised an eyebrow at him. What history?

“John’s my first boyfriend,” she answered. He didn’t know her; maybe he didn’t realise that.

Let’s pretend Isen never existed. They were never official.

“You’re just like your mother, Maeve.” His blue eyes glared at her, but through her. She wasn’t the person he was glaring at.

He walked out of the hospital room.

John walked into the classroom next to the school library that was still open on the weekend.

Cecile stood at one end of the room, arms crossed and leaning against the table behind her.

“Hello,” John greeted as he walked up to her with his hands in his pocket. “What did you want to talk about?”

“Will I still be Jack?” Cecile asked, not moving from where she stood.

“It’s unlikely,” he answered, pulling the edge of his hoodie further down. “You know how Seraphina is.”

“Why can’t you convince her?” Cecile questioned, scrunching up her nose. She moved one arm down to tighten her hand into a fist by her side. “Were you not best friends?”

“Yes, we were but she has Arlo talking in her ear now. She isn’t trustworthy anymore,” he replied to her. “Anyway, no. I can’t.”

“Have you even tried yet?” she asked, her fist shaking at her side.

“No, but I know what she is going to say,” he responded to her. “I would have a hard time trying to convince her to make Maeve Jack, let alone you.”

“Why are you focusing on Maeve? Is it because she’s your girlfriend, so you are going to put making her a royal a higher priority than me!” she half-yelled. She didn’t fully yell, so no one would overhear them. She stomped her foot against the floor. “I was the person to help you take down the Royals! I was the person to help you take down Arlo, Remi, Blyke and Isen! I gave you the time and place, and the abilities. I helped you find Seraphina when she was kidnapped. I helped you! What has Maeve ever done but suck your dick? When I helped you dethrone Arlo, our agreement was that you would make me Queen and if you couldn’t make me Queen, you would make me Jack. Now you are doing neither.”

“I said that I didn’t think Seraphina would allow you to be Jack,” he replied, slightly growling over his words. “Wasn’t she the person who made you not the Jack in the first place? When Seraphina became Ace, Remi became Queen and you were up for the position of Jack, but Seraphina stepped in to make Blyke the Jack. Why do you think the same thing wouldn’t happen again? Especially as she is the Queen now.”

“She has Arlo whispering in her ear,” Cecile stated before turning blood red at the realisation that Arlo wouldn’t change things.

“He would make himself Jack,” John replied. “Why wouldn’t he do that? He wants the strongest in charge but he also wants himself in charge. He won’t go down to the sixth strongest in the school for Jack. Plus, having you in the Jack position would benefit me, not him and Seraphina.”

“Are you even going to try to make me Jack though?” Cecile asked, cocking an eyebrow up at him.

“Yes,” he responded. “Well, I actually won’t know how it will go, but you are not out of the picture for Jack. I don’t know who I will volunteer. Of course, I’ll volunteer Maeve and you if I get the chance. I don’t think I will be successful for either of you.”

“What? Does she have a problem with Maeve too?”

“Most of my recent interaction with her are complaining about Maeve,” he explained, glancing to the side and away from her. “She insults her a lot. I don’t know what her problem with her is.”

“So, it’s unknown who the Jack will be?” Cecile questioned.

“Yes,” John replied. That had been what he was saying for the entire conversation. “All I can do is make sure certain people don’t get the position.”

“At least it is unlikely that Maeve will get the position,” Cecile stated. “She’s delusional.”

_John walked through the corridors of New Bostin. Alone. Alone and confused._

_Why was everyone ignoring him? The only one talking to him was a neighbour of his with aura deficiency._

_He didn’t get what he did wrong. He just copied everyone else’s actions. They didn’t get punished for their actions. They didn’t get backlash._

_They didn’t get talked bout behind their back._

_Why couldn’t he have a normal life? First, he lived a cripple and when he finally had an ability, he was the monster. (Like, they weren’t the monster for doing the same thing with much less reason.) He ‘misused’ his ability._

_“I hate John,” he heard a student ahead of him say with her back to him. “Who does he think he is? He’s delusional. So delusional.”_

_He cleared his throat._

Maeve wasn’t delusional. John wasn’t delusional. People were just upset that they couldn’t get their way.

“She’s not delusional. You just don’t agree with her,” he replied to Cecile.

“She does not think ahead,” Cecile continued. “She does not understand the consequences of her plans. She does not understand that the issues she thinks ever issues aren’t issues at all. They’re just people thinking they deserve more.”

“You are very close to not getting suggested as Jack,” John warned, glaring. He growled over his words. “You might want to shut up about this topic if you do at all want a chance of holding onto your position of Jack.”

“But I helped you,” she retorted. She glared up at him, feet hip width apart, with a fist clenched at her side.

“Look, I’ll help you become head of the Newspaper club again,” he replied. He didn’t want to help her anymore. She was a selfish brat, like the other high tiers in the world. “You work better independent anyway.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> 2188 words.
> 
> Sorry if I named Maeve's dad before and gave him the wrong name now. I went through to see if I had named him, but out of the chapters i remember him being in, his name wasn't mention. Due to how long the fic is so far and how little he appears, its not really worth it to take the time double checking to make sure in every chapter to make sure his name isn't mentioned. Also, if you know my ability to not pick up my own grammar mistakes, I would be unlikely to notice it anyway.
> 
> There have been other scenes where I checked over a few chapters (the only chapters it would reasonably be mentioned in) for other details, such as Maeve's motivations for becoming Queen (I don't believe it was initially mentioned at all until she became Queen).
> 
> I do recommend if you write a story without writing down a plan, write down some of the more minor but important details, so you don't forget them. I have the plan for this story in my head, which means I can alter it easier than a written document, but it also means I forget some details.
> 
> I think in a few weeks this fic will be one year old. I first published it, or at least came up with the idea, around Valentine's day last year. 
> 
> Thank you for reading this chapter. Please share your thoughts and opinions in the comments.


	65. To Talk

The problem with doing Royal business on the weekend was that you struggled to meet in school and you couldn’t meet outside in case someone overheard the conversation. That could end in massive consequences.

No one wanted to meet in a dorm room either. It could be bad if the conversation turns sour to be in the aggressor’s dorm room.

And that is how his meeting with Remi had been pushed back to Monday. Both of them knew it could get ugly if one of them turned it bad. They knew this wouldn’t end in them agreeing. This would not end in a compromise John was not going to allow her to get away with this.

It was also the reason why John and Seraphina hadn’t met yet. It was a disappointment that she was Queen now. Maeve didn’t really care where they met up.

In his first free that him and Remi shared in the morning (because it wouldn’t simply be settled in the time that break allowed), he headed towards a classroom on the second floor of one of the buildings.

Once he pushed the door open, he stepped inside to an immediate glare from Remi, who had been staring out the window before the door had clicked.

“You’re late as always,” she commented, arms crossed over her chest.

She was giving him Cecile vibes.

“Is that really how you want to start this conversation?” he questioned. He cocked his head to the side as he smirked down at her.

“Look.” She brushed down her blazer and straightened up her back before continuing to talk. “I don’t know what you problem is with me, but there is nothing wrong with the Safehouse.”

“There isn’t anything wrong?” He raised his eyebrow at her. “Are you even trying?”

“There isn’t anything wrong,” she reiterated, holding her hand to her chest in a fist. “You’re just trying to enact your pointless revenge further.”

“This isn’t revenge, Remi,” he responded, stuffing his hands into his trouser pockets. “You’re just using it as an excuse to allow your stupid power grasp to go unchecked.”

“‘Stupid power grasp?’” Remi quoted, a gasp. “What do you mean? Why would I need power? I’m trying to help low tiers.”

John rolled his eyes.

“You trying to help low tiers? Don’t make me laugh.” He glared Remi down. Who the heck did she think she was? “If you truly cared about low tiers, you would have helped years ago. But you didn’t.”

Remi’s bright red eyes glanced to the ground before snapping back up to look at him, glaring.

“I’m helping now,” she stated. “Why would me not helping sooner detract from the help I’m doing now?”

“Because it shows that you don’t care,” he replied. He sighed. God, she could be annoying. “This is only to gain power. You’re upset you are no longer a royal, so you’re using this club as a chance to gain power back amongst the student body.”

“Why would I need to gain power in the student body?” Remi asked, tilting her head. “You haven’t even tried to rally the students behind you.”

He rolled his eyes. “You’re using the club to hold the power you had before the Joker incident and before you were dethroned.”

She paused, thinking, and then questioned, “Shouldn’t the fact that you are changing your story show that you are wrong?”

“If the facts change about a theory, it doesn’t necessarily mean the theory is false,” John responded, shrugging. “You can be right with the wrong facts.”

“But isn’t it then just an accident that you were right about something?” Remi asked. “It defeats the point. You didn’t figure something out: you guessed.”

“That’s to a different scenario,” he replied. His heart thumped. “It still doesn’t change anything here.”

“Why does it not change anything?” she asked, frowning.

“Because I’m still shutting down the club!” he shouted.

Remi stared up at him, bright red eyes wide, liquid building up at the edges. Blood red eyes.

“But Blyke and I got permission from the school to form the club,” she argued. She slammed her hand against the windowsill next to her.

“The staff don’t understand what you are doing,” he replied, smiling. “Of course they would let you have your stupid club.”

“I’m not doing anything wrong,” she responded. Her hand balled into a fist.

“Yeah, so you claim,” he said. People like her were impossible. “You no longer have any permission to run your club. That’s final. I’m not going back on what I said.”

“They have my permission.”

John jumped.

His heart skipped several beats as he scanned the classroom before turning to glance towards the door, which was now open (when had that happened). Seraphina stood in the doorway, her gorgeous magenta her travelling down her shoulders, with her arms crossed over chest as she leant against the doorway.

She took a few steps forward, kicking the classroom door shut behind her, before picking up her pace to walk over to them.

Guess this would be when they finally talked.

He rolled his eyes. Him and Seraphina weren’t going to agree on this, so there was no point in trying.

“I should have realised you would say that,” he replied, lightly sighing. “Still, I didn’t expect you to turn up here now.”

“We need to talk,” Seraphina stated. Her diamond blue eyes glanced to Remi. “I’m assuming you don’t want to talk in this room.”

Remi shook her head viscously, her pale pink hair flying about her with her blue ribbon ends and loops.

Seraphina turned on the toe of her foot, looking him in the eye before walking to the door.

He took a few steps forward (towards where Sera was heading), but Remi placed a hand on his shoulder.

“I want you to know that I never meant to hurt anyone. I’m sorry if I did hurt anyone,” Remi whispered to him, looking up at him as he stared back at her. “But don’t hurt Maeve.”

He pushed off her hand without responding and walked over to where Seraphina was waiting in the doorway.

Why did Remi know what happened between Maeve and him? Did she know? Was she just protecting her friend? Surely Maeve wouldn’t have told her?

“Are you okay?” Seraphina questioned when he stepped out of the classroom and had shut the door behind her.

“Yes,” he responded, not looking at her as they continued to walk to another classroom. “Why?”

“You just went white when Remi talked to you at the end there,” she answered, glancing back at him as she walked ahead of him.

“She just referenced something that was only between Maeve and I,” John replied, glancing towards Sera before glancing away. His heart raced. “I freaked out for a second that Maeve was telling her what happened in private conversations.”

“Oh.” She went blood red before she pushed a door open to another classroom.

She turned her back to John as she walked to the other side of the classroom where the windows looked across the school’s playing fields.

He stepped inside the classroom and shut the door behind the two of them. Then he walked further in the room, so not much would be heard from outside.

“Why do you dislike Remi so much?” Seraphina asked, turning away from the glass windows to look at him.

He rolled his eyes at her.

“You are going to hurt your eyes if you roll them that much,” she commented, leaning back against the wall with the window on.

He rolled his eyes again.

“I don’t dislike Remi. She is using causes to hold power in the student body to prevent herself from losing it,” he explained. He didn’t smile. “I am not going to allow her stupid little club to run when I can stop it. It would allow help for Zir – Arlo too…

“You know what, you have Arlo talking in your ear. Why should I bother explaining to you the harm it will cause?”

“John, I dumped Arlo after he randomly attacked Maeve for the reasoning that she didn’t want to be open about her ability. Why would he be talking in my ear?” she asked, tilting his head up at him in question.

He rolled his eyes. “You know why. You believed a known liar and manipulator over your best friend of a year.”

“One, I had just found out you had lied to me. I was blinded by my emotions,” she argued back, glaring up at him with ice blue eyes. “Two, I thought Arlo had apologised. I thought he was sorry. I have no idea if either are true. Three, I left him as a friend as soon as I realised he was willing to repeat his actions that he had already admitted to me were wrong.”

“But you believed him in the first place?” he questioned.

“Maybe you could explain what happened between you and Arlo then,” she suggested. “If you are so certain he lied to me.

“Fine then. I can’t promise it’s in any great detail.” He glanced out to the cloudy grey sky outside the window. “When you were on suspension, the amount of people who were attacking me increased. I was free game. Isen interviewed me for an article he never ended up doing and broke my wrist when I got defensive as he was asking about my personal history. Ventus and Meilli broke my phone, which I would later find out was ordered by Arlo. Arlo eventually made contact by stopping some of the people attacking me, claiming he couldn’t support mid tiers ganging up on low tiers (like that would hold up). We started talking everyday – we even went to Woaba Boaba together. Though, he ordered black coffee.”

“Like his personality,” Seraphina commented. He smiled. She burst into laughter with John joining her soon after.

“Well, the next time Arlo asked to meet after school I trusted him,” he continued. “We took the train out to the turf wars location – though I didn’t know it at the time – and he met up with Ventus and Meilli, who I recognised for breaking my phone.

“They pinned me down (under _his_ orders) against the ground whilst Arlo taunted me about organising everything that I had experienced over those three weeks. It reminded me of…” he hesitated. He glanced to the side: out the window, away from her. “… Of something that happened to me in the past. The main reason why I lied about my ability. I don’t want to get into it.

“I snapped. I fought ack against the three; I beat them up.”

“Why didn’t you tell me what happened?” she questioned. Her blue eyes glistened. “The truth of what happened.”

“As I stated before, I was not comfortable,” he stated through gritted teeth. “ I was a lot more than not comfortable.”

“I deserved to know the truth, John,” Seraphian replied. Her arms crossed over her chest. “ You lied to me not only in the first place (at least I know that time wasn’t personal) but multiple times after that, even when I confronted you about it.”

“And then you believe Arlo over me,” he responded, rolling his eyes again.

“John, stop rolling your eyes at me just because you are frustrated with me and don’t want to listen,” she stated. “I know now that trusting Arlo was a bad idea, but that isn’t the point. You still lied to me!”

She sobbed, wiping a tear away from her eye.

Why the hell was she the one crying? She was the one who backstabbed her friend. His lies were minor. It wasn’t like he was trying to trick her into anything.

“You have Maeve now, so I guess it doesn’t matter,” she finished, straightening up her back. A tear rolled down her cheek.

“Why are you acting all mopy about this?” He took a deep break. “On the topic of Maeve, I would like to put her forward as the new Jack.”

“No,” Seraphina firmly responded. “I don’t want her to be Jack.”

“Then who the heck do you want to be Jack?!” he yelled, standing up straight and shoving a chair away. He took a deep breath to calm down. “You claim to not be supporting Arlo, so who would you want to be Jack?”

“We can still have Arlo as Jack,” she replied. “The three most powerful students in the school on the Turf Wars Team.”

“Maeve’s stronger than Arlo, so according to that logic, Maeve should be Jack.”

Seraphina sighed. “I didn’t realise that was the case.” She broke eye contact, glancing to the side. “I don’t want Maeve or Arlo as jack.”

He opened his mouth to speak.

“Don’t even suggest Cecile,” she hissed, glaring at him. Her fingers tightened on the edges where she grasped her upper arm: knuckles going white. “You know what I’m going to say.”

“Then who do you want?” he asked. Shouldn’t he know who she was going to state? There were so little high tiers in the school (though more than most schools).

“Maybe Remi,” she suggested. Her fingers lightened their grip. She smiled.

He stared off to the side, avoiding her gaze and smile. He didn’t want her as jack but…

“Fine then!” He huffed. Remi wouldn’t be the end of the world.

“I’ll see you for Turf Wars at the weekend then,” she replied, her arms falling to her side. “You are fine with me being in charge of Turf Wars, right?”

“Yes,” he responded, sighing. He shut his eyes to black out. “I don’t like Turf Wars.”

“Yes, it’s horrible,” she agreed.

“Which school is it? And which day and time?” he asked.

“Summer Wood Boarding School,” she replied. “The high school part of the school and it’s on Saturday. I’ll text you the time later at the time.”

“Never heard of them,” he commented. “Well, I’ll next see you on Saturday.”

He started walking towards the door, his back to her.

“You are aware that we are so going to talk before Saturday,” she called out to him as he continued to walk away from her.

“Yeah,” he replied before shutting the door behind him.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> 2377 words.
> 
> This chapter's about 200 words longer than I aimed for it to be.
> 
> John and Seraphina finally talk (chapter name: To Talk). It's been a long time coming. John and Sera will probably compare stories later on what Arlo told her as I didn't write what John told Seraphina in any great detail and they'll take more comfort in each other.
> 
> Also, turf wars. There will be several turf wars scenes before the end of this book. I like the concept of rivalries between schools and also friendships where the fight is more for laughs and testing each other. I also want to see more Turf War scenes in the webcomic (although I guess its unlikely).
> 
> Thank you for reading. What do you think of this chapter?


	66. Slowly

“I’m sorry that you’re not the Jack,” John stated, dramatically sighing.

Maeve was sat up on the hospital bed, facing John where he stood next to the bed.

“She’s such a bitch. I couldn’t get her to listen to me, not for one second,” John whined. His eyes focused on her for a minute. “You’re wearing the necklace I brought you!”

He reached out to her neck and picked up the heart on the chain between his two fingers. He smiled.

“It looks so pretty on you. I thought you didn’t want to wear it,” he stated, voice dropping in volume.

“I can’t wear it all the time, especially in the hospital, but I found the time to wear it and you happened to visit it when I did wear it,” Maeve replied, smiling up at him. It did not reach her eyes. “And, also, I don’t care about the Jack position. It doesn’t matter, so don’t stress about it.”

“But you are so much nicer to work with than Sera…” he explained, leaning against the bed. “Seraphina, sorry.”

“You don’t have to be sorry about it,” she responded. She twisted a strand of hair around her finger. “Her name can be different to say in full.”

“It’s just a nickname I used to have for her,” he stated. “It was personal and I stopped using it when she went behind my back. I thought you would be offended a jealous that I used it.”

“Why would I care?” she questioned, tilting her head at him with his bright blue eyes sparklingly. “You can have friends and ex-friends. Why should that matter to me?”

“You’re not jealous?” he asked, raising an eyebrow at her.

“No.” She shook her head. Her lilac head floated around her, the strands swishing. “She’s your friend (or ex-friend). It’s none of my business what your relationship is.”

“What if I was seeing someone else behind your back?” he asked, leaning forward in interest.

“The only issue would be trust then,” she replied, smiling up at him. “If you want to see someone else, just talk to me. I’d expect I would be able to do the same too.”

“Why are you so okay with that?” he questioned, staring at her. Why? Shouldn’t she be jealous? What was up with her? She wouldn’t be the sole person of his affection. “It’s like you’ve seen guys behind my back before.”

“You are too anxious about that,” she answered, rolling he eyes. “I know you care about me, so I’m not worried.”

“You have a lot of trust in me,” he noted. He glanced to his shoes (a pair of trainers). “That’s surprising.”

“John, we’re dating.” She forced him to meet her eyes by constant staring. “It would be a problem if I didn’t trust you.”

Did she trust him? She second guessed herself. She trusted him not to cheat, not much else.

“But I’m not trustworthy, Maeve,” he replied. He clasped his hands against his chest – one around the other. “Why would you trust me?”

“Because I do trust you, John.” She stared into his burning gold eyes with her own water blue. “Do I need a reason though?”

He glanced to the floor. “I don’t think I’m worthy of your trust.” He looked to her. “Or anyone’s.”

“Stop selling yourself short, John.” She reached out to where his hand rested on the bed and stroked her knuckle across his hand. “You are doing yourself a disservice.”

“But I hit you, Maeve. I hit you several times. Why would you trust me after that? I don’t get it.”

Her heart raced. Why was John pushing this? Was he trying to trip her up? Would he hit her when she did trip up? But her was bringing up, so surely that was his true feelings? He was concerned that his actions had hurt her – that this relationship wouldn’t work. She didn’t want to admit it to him.

Why would he bring it up though? Wouldn’t he want her to forget that he hit her? Multiple times? (Like she could ever forget that.) He didn’t want to break up, did he?

He had just brought up her necklace and he liked her wearing it Why would he want to break up now? He surely didn’t act like he wanted to break up.

This was also way too close to her dating Isen at the beginning of their relationship. She knew John didn’t trust her.

At least, she didn’t think John trusted her. these questioning happened a lot.

“You don’t trust me, do you?” Maeve’s heart fell with John’s voice. “You were just lying to me.”

“I…” She hesitated. How was she supposed to fix this? “I do trust you, John. You just don’t trust yourself.”

She glanced up to John’s eyeline from where clasped her white knuckled hands together on top of the towers.

Had she done wrong?

“If you lived with my brain – lived with the actions I had done – you would understand why I can’t trust myself.” He pressed the palm of his hand to his chest. “I have to relive what I did everyday.”

“Look, what Claire did was horrible,” she replied, “But you shouldn’t hold it against yourself.”

“Why are you defending me?” he yelled, violently stepping back from the bed. “What I did to Claire was horrible! I regret it every day; I see it every day!”

“Maybe it because Claire dragged me out to the location that day that makes me bias, but I don’t blame you for beating them up,” she explained. “You don’t know what they were planning: it was self-defence.”

“Maeve, I went too far. I don’t know how you can’t see that,” he responded.

She crossed her arms over her chest. “I think she deserved it.”

“Uh.”

Maeve glanced up to the door where Isen now stood, back against the door.

Not now.

“What are you doing here?” john glared at him, turning his body to face him.

Isen gulped.

“Maeve and I have a project to work on,” he explained, clutching a folder to his side. “Maeve didn’t say you would be here.”

Isen stood stiffly by the door. He didn’t move.

“John didn’t tell me he was coming,” she replied. John glared at her. (Like, seriously, he didn’t tell her he was coming. He just popped in and started whining about Seraphina.)

“Wouldn’t you rather me send you a timetable for where I will visit you?” he questioned. He tilted his head as he stared at her.

“No, just a heads up,” she replied, staring up at him. “I could already have plans.”

“But I’m your boyfriend,” he responded. How was that an excuse?

“I have friends and family too, John. You are not the only person who wants to see me and not the only person I talk to.”

John rolled his eyes and walked away from the bed back to the door. He nudged Isen and whispered something that Maeve could not hear and Isen took a step forward. He was pale white, but he walked up to the bed and pulled a chair out.

She hated the restraint of the bed. She couldn’t wait to be out of here. She would not have John watching her every move (every word) either.

“So,” Isen whispered. “I want to start on the plot. Should we keep the same protagonist from before?”

“Yes,” she answered. “The same design. We didn’t really get on to personality, so we could change her personality from what we initially intended it to be.”

“Yeah, that could work.”

Were they going to talk about the plot now? She didn’t want John to overhear what they were saying (at least they were whispering). He would assume that Isen knew. It was too similar.

Was it similar? They hadn’t even marked out the plot. It could be completely different. It could be emotionally abusive instead of physically (except she swore they had already talked about this).

John could just hear ‘abuse’ and assume they were talking about him.

“What should be the goals of the character?” Isen asked. “Well, the main protagonist as that’s the only character we have right now. And the boyfriend – should it be a boyfriend? It could be a husband, a girlfriend or a wife. We really need to figure this out.”

“Can you stop whispering?” John asked, calling out like he was projecting across an auditorium. “I don’t hear what you’re saying.”

“What? Are you trying to copy off us?” Isen questioned. Her heart thumped. “I haven’t forgotten that you’re in the same English class as us. How is your project going?”

John sighed before he turned around and exited the room, slamming the door behind him.

“Sorry,” Isen stated, his voice now at a normal volume. “I didn’t mean to piss him off.”

“He has issues,” she replied. “It’s not your fault. He needs to learn that he can’t or be a part of everything I do.”

“Wait, he’s controlling” he exclaimed before falling and catching himself. “That actually is a John thing to do.”

“He dislikes almost everyone in the school, so he doesn’t get how I’m able to hang out with you and Remi,” she replied, nervously glancing to the side, and smiling. “He just finds it suspicious. Or at least a part of him finds it suspicious.”

“Is he like this all the time?” he asked curiously.

Yes. Most of the time, if not worse.

“No,” she answered, lying with a smile on her face. “We’re perfectly fine.”

“I was asking about John’s behaviour, not your relationship,” he replied, raising an eyebrow at her in confusion. “Though, I guess your relationship was relevant.”

“We’re fine,” she repeated. Was she trying to convince herself of that?

“You don’t need to tell me twice,” he replied. “It makes you sound less confident.”

She nodded. She was not confident.

“The goal of the main character should be to escape the relationship,” she stated. She glanced to Isen and her heart skipped a beat. Could anyone be hotter?

“Should she be dating a guy or a girl?” Isen asked, smirking. Why was he smirking?

“A guy.” No, you’re making it to close to yourself, Maeve. “No, a girl. Wait! I don’t know!”

“Is it to overwhelming for you?” he questioned, tilting his head

“No,” she replied, holding her head in her hands. Palm to forehead. “There’s just too many options.”

“That also comes under overwhelming,” he whispered. He leant forward to her. “So what di you think I was referring to?”

“Nothing.” She fiddled with her hands. “Nothing that is relevant.

Isen stared at her. Did he know?

_He didn’t know. You covered for yourself, Maeve. He won’t guess what is actually happening. He can’t._

“Let’s just go with a guy,” Isen stated. He changed the subject. Please say he was going to avoid it altogether. “My executive decision.”

She rolled her eyes. “You think too highly of yourself.”

“It’s final, though,” he replied. “At least, if you agree.”

“I agree.” She shrugged. “I guess it fits.”

“So, what do you think his goal should be?” he asked. “I’m thinking to make sure the mc doesn’t leave, or at least leave him for someone else.”

“Yes, especially as it’s a short story,” she answered, lying her palm facing up to the ceiling on top her thigh above the bed sheets. “And the main character’s goal should be to escape in any way possible.”

“Her boyfriend or husband should want total control too,” he responded. “If that’s okay with you?”

“Yes, it’s fine.” She sighed. “We really need to find a name for these characters.”

“How about Bianca for the mc?” he suggested.

“Yes, that’s a nice name. It fits.” She twisted a strand of lilac hair around her finger. “How about her boyfriend (I think he should be her boyfriend) be called Maximus?”

“That’s a bit of a heavy name,” Isen replied. “I don’t think he should have that name.”

Maeve glanced Isen. She had liked that name.

“Maybe you should decide the name then,” she whispered back, staring down at her lap.

“Oh.” Isen flushed red. “How about Owen then?”

She nodded. “That works. We should also-”

“Visiting time is over.” Maeve glanced up, her head moving up, to see a male nurse standing by the door with a blue mask over his mouth.

“Oh.” Isen stood up. “I’ll see you tomorrow then.”

“See you too.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> 2078 words.
> 
> I keep considering taking a hiatus for this because I have so many ideas of what I want to write for other fanfics, but this ones so long that it takes up most of my time (I'm trying to write more chapters quicker so I can be done earlier whilst still having chapters to publish). I'm somewhat scared to take a hiatus because when I have taken a hiatus for other fanfictions I've written, I have never properly returned. I also reverse my decision after making a decision a day before because I want to continue writing and publishing it. 
> 
> I'm not taking a hiatus at this current moment, by the way.
> 
> As to ask generally, I've written Maeve to have the occasional manipulative dialogue when talking with John; do you see this? It's not in every interaction, but scenes where she brings up Claire and kind of emotionally blackmails John (although this is normally in response to John hitting her and doing something along those lines). Just wanted to ask peoples' thoughts on these scenes.
> 
> Thank you for reading. Please share your thoughts on the chapter in the comments.


	67. Runaway

John entered the oak doorway of the hotel room that his parents were staying in. His mother wasn’t in sight – who could easily have to work even when her daughter had recently died – but his dad, Will, stood by the doorway, holding the door for him after he had knocked.

“Dad.” He took a few steps forward and Will let go of the door and let it shut in time for John to wrap his arms around him.

“John.” Will ran a hand through his raven black hair whilst John’s head rested near his shoulder. “How is school currently?”

“It’s getting better,” he replied, holding him tighter. “Seraphina and I had a falling out a few weeks ago.”

“Oh.” Will hesitated. He was probably questioning what had been happening when they first found Ella as Seraphina had been there in his room, acting like nothing had happened. “Was it about you lying to her about your ability? I told you that you needed to tell her.”

“Yes.” He glanced away from his gaze. His heart tingled. “Plus, there were some people in my school who started telling her lies about me.”

He didn’t include that they told her about his ability.

“So, it was bad timing?” he questioned, arms slack around John’s shoulders.

John took a step away from him as he broke his arms away.

“I guess,” he responded. Maybe he should have just had the ability reader read his level. This entire thing would turn out different.

“You’re not alone at school now, are you?” he asked. He tilted his head in concern. “I can get Juno to report the people who are telling lies about you to the school if it is presenting an issue for you.”

“No, I’m fine,” he responded, hiding his hands behind his back.

His heart raced. Was Arlo actually telling lies? It could just be the truth from his own actions, though possibly without the context of Arlo’s actions.

“In fact, I have a girlfriend now,” he stated, gulping. He wasn’t certain he wanted Maeve to meet his parents. At least not at this point. He didn’t want his dad to know that he had relapsed – let alone relapsed worst.

“You should bring her over some time then,” he replied, staring at him. Was John visibly sweating? Could he see that? “I would like to meet her.”

“Yes,” he hesitantly responded. Why did he keep having to act suspicious? He must know that something was up by now.

He wasn’t certain how much longer him and Maeve had together. It wasn’t like Maeve would want to stay with him after everything, but she didn’t show any signs of wanting to leave him, did she?

She was actually wearing the necklace, so she wasn’t acting like their relationship was going to end soon. Or at least, that she knew their relationship was going to end soon. She wasn’t showing any signs of wanting to leave him because she wouldn’t wear the necklace if she did (but she didn’t want to wear the necklace at first too).

He didn’t want her to leave him; he didn’t want to be alone again. She couldn’t leave him.

“John!” Ella shouted. Her voice melted, filled with emotion.

He turned, lifting his head up, to face Ella: who stood in the doorway between the two bedrooms, had her arms crossed over her chest (though smiling) and leant against the golden wood doorway with her back. Then a frown locked on her face.

He hadn’t heard her open the door. Had she heard what he told Dad? She already knew about him and Maeve, so he supposed that it shouldn’t matter.

“Hello Ella,” he greeted, shifting his hands to his trouser pockets. “How has your day been?”

“Great. Just fucking great,” she replied. She pushed herself off the heavy oak wood door to standing and stomped into the room, hand clenched into her fist at her side. “It beats fucking Friday because fucking Friday was the worst fucking miracle ever.”

He glanced to his dad, who he expected to start scolding Ella for swearing and stomping but he didn’t react to her unusual choice of words.

“What happened?” he questioned.

He should have visited his family over the weekend.

“The Authorities finally decided to question me for a witness statement!” she responded – though not through a shout – and punctuated it with her foot slamming into the carpeted floor. “They took me into the fucking station and questioned me with some of the most ridiculous questions and points.”

“Ella, you don’t work for the Authorities,” their dad interjected. “You do nt know which questions are procedure.”

“They sounded ridiculous,” she answered, glaring at dad. “They were mostly asking if there was any possibility I killed her.” She sobbed, tears rolling down her pale cheeks. “They – They.” She brought her hands up to her face to hold her head in her hands. “They completely ignored the fact that I was mourning her death. My beloved sister’s death.”

“Ella.” Dad stroked along her hair. “I know those questions were insensitive and frustrating, but they were necessary. Someone who is claiming to be the sole witness to a crime can easily be the perpetrator. They just have to cross out that option and hopefully they have now.”

Ella sobbed again and Dad took a few steps towards her and hugged her. She hugged him back.

“Then…” He hesitated for a second. He would understand Ella’s anger at her treatment (it was Ella) but his dad seemed angry to. He was allowing Ella to get away with a lot. “Then why?”

“She hadn’t explained the most ridiculous part yet,” Will replied, smiling to him.

John nodded.

“Well, they questioned if it was our aunt that I saw attack Mary and I,” she continued. “I explained that could only be her: ability and all. As they accepted that I was saying it was my aunt and that was the case, they decided that my aunt couldn’t be Volcan because she was my aunt.”

“That wasn’t exactly what they told you, right Ella?” Will prompted.

“Okay, it was because the motive and how the murder was planned out,” she replied, sighing. “Although, I would argue that Mary’s and the superheroes’ deaths were opportunistic. Aunt… Venus had no way of knowing that Mary and I would walk there and how would she know the vigilantes would be at that specific hidden location? They don’t know how she works, so the only differences between Mar and the vigilantes is that the vigilantes are vigilantes. They’re all high tiers and they don’t release information on the vigilantes to connect any other similarities.”

She paused.

“Well, anyway.” Ella glanced down to where her feet in dark pink and light pink striped socks rested against the floor and pursed her lips. She was calmer now. “I told them that and then they kicked me out.”

“Did they not take your statement?” John asked, looking to Ella.

“Oh, they in fact decided to not investigate any further!” she exclaimed. “Apparently as Venus is a high tier, it isn’t necessary to arrest her.”

“That’s hypocritical,” John stated.

“It was so horrible.” She sobbed. She wiped a tear from beneath her eyes. “I just want Mar back.”

Her knees buckled and Will ran forward to catch her in his arms.

“Hey, Ella,” he heard his dad whisper to her, barely audibles to him. He rubbed circles slowly on her back. “It’ll be okay.”

It wasn’t okay.

John walked down the corridor in Wellston. Hands in pockets. Eyes on the route in front of him.

Noise flooded the hall. Non-stop whispers.

Why couldn’t people just fucking shut up? Did they now know how to be polite? Did they not know talking behind someone’s back was wrong? Or were just a bunch of idiots?

Why did he even care about them? Oh wait, he was in a role where he was supposed to help them. Why did he even agree to going public with his ability? Oh wait, she agreed to date him!

Did Maeve even care about him? He pressured her into dating him. Did she have a say? Of course, she had a say. He gave her a say.

Why did he even listen to the whispers? Rumours? They were just people being uncaring idiots. Their words were untrue, so they should be nothing to worry about.

But people believed those stupid whispers. These horrible rumours that painted him in the wrong (bad) light.

Why couldn’t they just shut up? He could shut them up. Make them gone.

“John.”

He had been death-staring the floor that he walked along. He took a step back. Had he been stomping? The whispers always got worse then.

He turned around to face Seraphina.

She stood a few feet behind him, arms crossed over her chest, with a frown smeared on her face.

“What are you doing?” Her voice held no humour that it use to hold. Just pure cold.

Why?

“You know what I’m doing,” he replied. She was just as late as him.

“You overshot.” She raised her hand up in a fist, so her thumb pointed over her shoulder. In the rough direction stood the classroom he was supposed to meet her in.

“Oh.” Was everyone looking at him?

He walked past her and into the classroom, ignoring Seraphina’s gaze.

He slammed the door behind him without letting Seraphina in before walked to the other side of the room.

“You didn’t have to fling the door in my face!” Seraphina yelled out as soon as she stepped in the room with the door closed behind him.

He rolled his eyes at her once they were facing.

“Look, I’m sorry about Maeve,” she stated. “But I shouldn’t apologise to you.”

“Yes, apologise to Maeve,” he responded. “She is the person who should hear it from you.”

“So, are you going to apologise to those who you hurt?” she asked.

“Maybe Remi and Blyke,” he replied. “Arlo should have traded places with them. Preferably in Remi’s place. Still, they shouldn’t have gone 4 vs 1.”

“How were they supposed to defeat you otherwise?” she questioned. “It’s not like any of them had a higher level than you.”

“It’s unfair to me,” he replied, holding his hand up to his chest.

“John, you’re a god tier,” she explained. Why was she so calm about this? How couldn’t she see that ganging up on him was unfair? “It was unfair for you to go up against any of them.”

“They were the ones who cheated,” he replied. “Plus, mid tiers go against low tiers all the time. You are not saying anything about that.”

“Let’s just move on to a different topic.” Sera sighed. “I wanted to come up with a plan to stop the one sided fighting in the school.”

“What about Maeve’s plan?” he questioned.

“It’s not good enough.” She sighed again. It was like him rolling his eyes yesterday. “People won’t listen with that plan. They are given too much leeway.”

“Then what is your idea?”

“We should ban the use of ability (except possibly healing and other non-fighting abilities) in most areas and have a few areas where ability use is allowed,” she explained. “Then low tiers can report those who hurt them for breaking the school rules.”

“That sounds good,” he replied, “but what if they don’t want to report it? Or what if reporting it makes it worse?”

“That would be on them,” she responded. “We can’t really help those who don’t want to be helped. All we can offer is support.”

“So, should we offer a place for them to talk to someone about it?” he asked.

“Yes, but…” She hesitated. “It’s a heavy conversation. I think we should get a professional in for that.”

“What professional?” he asked.

“I don’t know what profession it is, but we would have to ask the headmaster.”

John nodded.

“What areas are we going to make zones that abilities are allowed in?” he asked.

“We should wait until we talk to Remi as well as have a map of the school,” she replied. “We need to make sure there is always another route to take to get somewhere if a path is through an ability zone.”

“Anyway, how has your day been?”

“Huh.” He flushed red. His gold eyes stared at her. “I guess it was good. How was yours?”

“Good too.” She glanced away from him for a second. “How has your sister been?”

“Ella? She’s not so happy. The Authorities asked her in for a witness statement and then decided to not look into it.”

“Really?” she questioned, pressing her lips together and glancing to the side. “Do you think the Authorities are involved with Ember?”

“I wouldn’t be surprised,” he responded. “Ember are taking down those who the Authorities hate. They could just be using Ember to get around the law.”

“Yes,” she replied. “I wish they never existed.”

“Are you okay?”

“I just…” Her hand grasped at her elbow. “Before I came back from suspension early, I threatened my parents with running away. A few years ago, my older sister ran away and I haven’t seen her since. All my parents’ attention turned to me. They wanted me to be perfect. You helped me realise that I didn’t have to be that.”

“Oh.” Heat radiated from John’s face as he glanced away from her. “I always disliked the rumours they spread about you.”

“Did they do the same to you?” she asked. He raised an eyebrow at her. “I mean, at your old school.”

  
“Wait, how do you know about that?” he exclaimed.

“I talked to Arlo,” she admitted, glancing away from him to the floor.

“Oh, so you trusted _him_ again,” he stated.

“It was at the same time as last time,” she replied. “And anyway, if you told me what happened, I wouldn’t have to trust him.”

“It isn’t your place to know.” He sighed and turned around. “I’ll see you when we meet with Remi then.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> 2348 words.
> 
> So I've decided to go on hiatus in a few weeks once I've published up to chapter 71. I thought that would be the best place to stop. I'll be on hiatus to fully plan out the rest of the story, so it's easier to write and doesn't go on forever. 
> 
> I will probably won't be able to estimate when I'll be back until I do go on hiatus, but I imagine at the most it will be in April at some time, but that's an estimation from when I was initially planning to go on hiatus this week. It may be more may as it will be more four more weeks.
> 
> It's also not 100% that I'll definitely go on hiatus at chapter 71 as I could change my mind before then.
> 
> Also, more conversations between John and Seraphina. Wonder where that will go. 
> 
> And more Ella. It's almost the time where she will start attending Wellston.
> 
> Thank you for reading. Please comment your thoughts on the chapter.


	68. Grace

“So, that should be the plot?” Isen questioned after he finished his explanation before glancing at where Maeve sat in the hospital bed, looking at him. Her soft lilac hair tumbled down her back with the front strands curling around her face.

She smiled up at him – creases forming around her dark blue eyes – and his heart fluttered.

“Yes, I like it,” she replied, tucking a strand of her hair behind her ear.

He silently sighed. It was finally over. Maeve was the main reason they didn’t have a plot yet.

Since yesterday, he had continued to wonder whether there was something move going on between them. John seemed to care more about their relationship than Maeve, which hadn’t been the case when he had dated (him in the place of John, of course). Though, he had only dated her for about three days whilst she was cheating on him with John (it wasn’t surprising that John cared more).

“Is everything okay?” she asked, leaning forward slightly to look at him.

“Yes,” he answered. He glanced away from her. “I was just surprised that you agreed.”

She rolled her eyes. “We don’t have forever for the plot.”

“Wait,” he stated and took a pause. “Do you not like it?”

“I do like it,” she responded, smiling up at him with a strand of hair twisted around her finger.

“You made it sound like you didn’t like it,” he replied, staring at her in confusion. “You could have just said you liked it.”

“You were the one who asked,” she answered, smiling at she rested her face in the palms of her hand. “Anyway, what are you doing on Saturday?”

“I’m meeting up with Remi and Blyke.” Isen glanced at her out of the corner of her eye after looking to the door.

“Aren’t they dating?” she questioned, tilting her head at him, so her hair fell down more with the weight of gravity.

“Yes, so?” he asked, raising an eyebrow. “We are still best friends.”

“But wouldn’t it be awkward to be a third wheel?” she suggested, smiling as she fiddled with the light blue duvet of the bed.

“That doesn’t matter,” he replied, leaning back from the bed. “You just make it sound like you want me to invite you to come along.”

“Well.” She crossed her arms over her chest, nervously fiddling with her fingers by her upper arm, whilst she avoided eye contact with him. “I’m out of here on Friday and I wanted to meet up with you outside to work on the project.”

“Then why not Sunday?” he asked.

“Yeah, we could meet then,” she replied, smiling still. It didn’t reach her eyes.

“Do you already have plans or something?” he questioned, crossing his arms over his chest as he gripped a pen in his hand.

“My mom’s coming over to see me,” she replied. “She might ask to meet up on the weekend.”

“Well, you don’t have to wait for her. We can make plans and your mom can make plans with you around them,” he suggested.

“My mom’s not exactly a reasonable person,” she responded. She didn’t meet his eyes as she spoke.

“Oh,” he answered. “Can’t you just meet up on Saturday?”

“I guess we could.”

“So, the next thing we should do is define the characters,” he stated. “Such as giving motivations for goals and characteristics.”

“Yes.” Maeve nodded.

She reached forward and entwined her fingers with his.

Why did Maeve keep doing this?

He stared at her.

“Maeve, we broke up for a reason,” Isen replied. “You have a boyfriend.”

“I am planning to break up with him!” Maeve replied in an outcry.

“You said that last time!” he responded. “And you haven’t done that yet.”

“John’s a scary person. I’m nervous to do it, but I don’t want to stay with him.”

“Why did you even agree to go out with him?”

Maeve was the one of them to ask him out.

“We’ve been over this before,” she replied, crossing her arms over her chest.

“Why do you keep flirting with me?” he asked, pushing his hands down into the mattress of her bed.

“Because I thought you were interested in me!”

“One,” he responded, “I get that what I did the other day was inappropriate. I should have realised you would take it that way. Two, you have a boyfriend. It’s odd that you don’t seem to care about that.”

“I want to break up with John. That’s why I don’t care,” she answered, sighing dramatically. “And I want to have something with you.”

“Maybe you should have considered that before you cheated on me!”

“I’m sorry about that,” she stated, glancing down and away from him. “My mother used to have multiple boyfriends who didn’t know of each other and, although I realised it wasn’t normal, I didn’t think it was wrong.”

“How did you know it wasn’t normal and didn’t realise that cheating was wrong?”

“Fighting is normal and yet it is wrong.”

“That’s besides the point. Cheating is uncommon because it is wrong,” Isen explained, taking a deep breath in.

“I’m sorry okay,” she replied. A tear strolled down her cheek. “I wouldn’t have done it if I knew.”

“And yet you are doing it again.”

“So, I’ll wait ‘till I break up with John, but we can still meet up for the project.”

“We’re running around in circle with this,” he responded.

“Okay. Then maybe we should focus on the project,” she replied, pressing the tip of her finger against the duvet over her leg.

“Are you able to draw in the hospital?”

“No. My drawing tablet is apparently too expensive to have here.”

“Oh. I guess we’re back to defining the characters.” He sighed. It was getting a bit dull at this point, especially at how they kept disagreeing on it.

“So, who should help the main character?”

“Bianca? Maybe her sister,” he suggested.

“I think I watched a movie where that was the case, so we should do something different. Like maybe an ex best friend that is only ex due to Owen.”

“So, someone who warns her and helps her out later.”

“Yes, I guess that’s the idea I have,” she replied.

“It’s a good idea. She’ll hide out at her place. What should her ability be?”

“Something defensive or at least something that can be used in a defensive way.”

“Fine?”

“That’s a good idea. I like it.”

She smiled up at him and his heart fluttered.

“Maeve!” Isen looked up to where the voice came from and a woman stood there with long lilac hair tumbling down her back.

He took a step back as the woman rushed forward, wrapping her arms around Maeve.

“Mom,” she wined.

Of course, the woman was her mom. Of course, Maeve had such a young mom.

“Maeve.” The woman – Maeve’s mom – turned her head to face him, a curl falling across her face, and smiled at him. “Who’s this?”

“My…” She hesitated. A small smile played on her lips. “Boyfriend.”

His heart skipped a beat. What was she thinking? She had a boyfriend. She would have to introduce him to her parents and then how would she explain this

“Oh, you haven’t discussed it yet.” The woman clasped her hands together up near her chest. “How cute!”

He glanced to Maeve, who had flushed to cherry red.

Their eyes met. Blue flashed.

_Just go along with it_ , he heard said in the echo chamber of his head. Maeve’s voice.

_What_? He thought.

_She would have assumed we were dating anyway,_ she replied.

_I grew up with her_ , she responded.

Their relationship must not be that good. Then he realised that must be stupidly obvious.

_You could have warned me_ , he stated. _You could have told me you were going to tell her that._

_How would I have told you that_? She questioned. _She would have overheard us._

_Unless she has the same ability as you, this way_ , he explained _. And if she does have this ability, why are we communicating like this currently?_

_She doesn’t have the same ability as me_ , she answered.

_I see_ , he replied. What gives you the right to tell her that I’m your boyfriend anyway? _It’s only going to cause issues for you in the future._

_Maybe I didn’t think it through_ , she responded, gritting her teeth.

_Doesn’t seem like you did._

“Oh, are you communicating telepathically?” she asked. “How cute!”

How did Maeve put up with her?

“Yeah, he replied, dragged out. His eyes wandered to Maeve and she death glared him.

“Maeve, what have I told you about using your ability?” she asked. “It always causes more harm to you than good. You remember what happened last time. You were out all night and we almost lost you.”

“You did that,” Isen exclaimed. He stared at her.

He had no idea that Maeve could do that to herself. Knock herself out for hours on end just to use the mental side of her ability. That she put herself close to death.

“She’s taking it out of context.” Maeve’s gaze didn’t break away from him.

“Maeve, you’ll find I’m not,” her mom replied. “Before she came here, we had a car accident and she was out for twelve hours after the rest of us where conscious because she decided to use her ability to wander through minds.”  
  


“You dislike my ability because you don’t have it,” Maeve responded. She crossed her arms over her chest and frowned at her.

“So?” she questioned. “I’m trying to help you, Maeve. It doesn’t matter whether I share the same ability as you or not; I’m your mother and I care about you.”

“You’re just jealous of me,” Maeve replied.

“Why would I be jealous?” she asked.

Maeve huffed and then proceeded to refuse to look at her. Which resulted in a too long pause of silence.

“Anyway, Isen, what are your interests?” she questioned. “Oh, and you can call me Grace.”

“My interests?” he asked. “I like writing. Mostly journalistic writing. I’m currently head of the School’s Newspaper club.”

“Ahh, so you attend Wellston?”

“Where else would we have met?” Maeve hissed at her.

“So, you’re family has money?” she asked.

Isen mouth fell into an ‘o’ shape, but Maeve threaded her fingers through his and squeezed his hand.

“Mother,” Maeve hissed.

Maybe this was why she was so aggressive to her. her mother was… odd.

“What, Maeve?” Grace questioned. “Are you going to claim that money isn’t important?”

There might have been an innocent reason for the original question.

“I would like to make the money myself instead of relying on others,” Maeve replied.

“That’s wishful thinking, but it’s not reality,” she explained. “You know what I told you, so why aren’t you following it?”

“Because I don’t want to,” she responded. “I think it’s stupid.”

“It’s not stupid. I’m older than you, Maeve. I’ve been through more than you. I know the world better.”

Isen wanted out of here.

He glanced to Maeve, who was pulling a disgusted face with her arms crossed, before he stood up from where he had leant on the bed and walked over to the door.

“I’m just going to see your doctor,” Isen stated and then slipped away before they could stop to question him.

The corridor of the hospitals were eerily white – perfectly clean without a spec of dust. Squeaky as soap with the taste filling his mouth.

He surveyed the corridor as he walked along, hands in posts. He couldn’t take another second of being in the room with both of them together. It was mostly Grace (no wonder Maeve had issues when it came to the rules of dating) but Maeve flirting with in a closed relationship that wasn’t with him grated on his nerves. Not only had she lied to him at first, but she was now putting him in danger because John was more likely to blame him for her cheating than Maeve.

“Isen.” He glanced up from where he had drilled a line in the floor to see Maeve’s doctor a few feet ahead of him. “You don’t normally leave this early.

“Oh, it’s nothing,” he replied, scratching the back of his neck. “Maeve’s mom just turned up and they’re in a heated conversation.”

The doctor nodded gravely before beginning to ask for more questions.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> A/N: 2069 words.
> 
> Wattpad stopped working for a bit, so that's why this is later than I've been posting in the past few months. I'm not sure I need to make that clarification other than to say the problem I mentioned in the announcement I made on wattpad earlier is fixed. I genuinely was concerned that I'd have to copy and paste it and send it to my phone to post it though at the time. 
> 
> I did also remember Maeve's mum's name, Grace. I put it in an authors note in one of the first three chapters and remembered that, so the name hasn't changed. 
> 
> I'm still set to go on hiatus in a few weeks after I have published in chapter 71. The hiatus then might be longer as schools are going back in the Uk now, but it shouldn't do as I'd still have the same amount of work. There is a chance the hiatus will be at chapter 70 as I am having difficulty writing chapter 71 though.
> 
> Also, more Isen and Maeve content. 
> 
> Thank you for reading this chapter. Please share your thoughts about it in the comments.


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